687 
brisk 
U Estrange. S. Full of lively or exciting ac- 
tion or events ; exciting ; interesting. 
You have had a brisk time of it at Howick, ami all the 
organs of combaUvi'iicss Inuv been c-alleil into ui'tiun. 
>>/.;/ ftniiili, Ti. the Countess Orey. 
4. Burning freely; bright: as, a brisk fire. 
6. Effervescing vigorously: said of liquors: bristle (bris'l), r. ; pret. and pp. bristled, ppr. 
a, .brisk cider. 6. Performed or kept up with bristling. [< ME. bristlen, brustlen (= O. bor- 
steln), bristle; from the noun.] I. trans. 1. 
briskness ; rapid ; quick : as, a brisk fire of in- 
fantry. 
Brisk toll alternating with ready cane. Wordsworth. 
7f. Vivid; luminous. 
Hi: hunts about the proudest World to buy 
Hi.' choice of purest and of brightest Cloth 
lirifk in the Tynan am) si.loniun dye, 
As due to Ills fuir Uarlinu. 
J. llaiuinant. Psyche, I. 88. 
Had It [my instninieiit) magnified thirty or twenty-five 
times, it had made the object appear more brisk and plea- 
sant. Newtm. 
= Svn. 1. Alert, nimble, quick, rapid, sprightly, prompt, 
spry, smart, bustling, wide-awake, eager. See active and 
brisk (brisk), r. [< brisk, a.] I.t trans. To 
make lively ; enliven ; animate ; refresh : some- 
times with up. Killingbeck. 
II. intrans. To become brisk, lively, or ac- 
tive : with up. 
brisken (bris'kn), v. [< brisk + -en 1 .] I. i- 
tni/ts. To be or become brisk, active, or lively. 
[Rare.] 
I heartily wish that business may brisken a little. 
Quoted in W. Mathewa's Getting on in the World, p. 209. 
II. trans. To make brisk or lively, 
brisket (bris'ket), n. [< ME. bruskette, < OF. 
brnsket, bruschet, later briehet, mod. F. brechet, 
prob. < Bret, bruclted, dial, brusk, the breast. 
British 
2. A similar appendage on some plants; a kind of pasteboard, sometimes glazed on tin- 
stiff, sharp hair. 3. In dipterous insects of the surface, used by artists, 
division Brachycera. the arista or terminal part Bristol brick. SIM- l,>-n-i-. 
of the antenna. 4. In ornitlt., a bristly fea- Bristol diamond. Same as Bristol stone ( which 
ther; a feather with a stout stiff stem and little see, undor stum i. 
or no web.-Rictal bristles, vibrissaj. se nbrissa. Bristol milk, paper, porcelain, pottery, red, 
stone. See the nouns. 
[F., < briser, break: see 
To erect the bristles of ; erect in anger or de- 
fiance, as a hog erects its bristles. 
Now, for the bare-pick'd bone of majesty 
linth dogged war bristle his angry crest, 
And snarleth In the gentle eyes of peace. 
Shak., K. John, iv. 3. 
Boy, bristle thy courage up. Shak., Hen. V., U. 8. 
2. To make bristly. 3. To fix a bristle on: 
as-to bristle a shoemaker's thread. 
BE. intrans. 1. To rise up or stand on end 
like bristles. 
Nought dreadful saw he ; yet the hair 
'Oan brittle on his head with fear. 
H'l'Uiam Morris, Earthly Paradise, lli. 4i 
2. To stand erect and close together like bris- 
tles. 
A forest of masti would have brittled in the desolate 
port of Newry. llacaulati. 
3. To be covered, as with bristles: as, the 
ranks bristled with spears. See to bristle with, 
below. To bristle against, to come In collision with, 
contradict, or oppose somewhat rudely. [Kare.] 
The wife may not bristle against her husband. 
./. Udall, On Ephesians, v. 
The annotation here, as in many places, bristles again*' 
the text. Sir H'. Hamilton. 
To bristle UP, to show anger, resentment, or defiance. 
brisure (briz'ur), . . 
lini'mr.] 1. In permanent fortification, a break 
in the general direction of the parapet of the 
curtain, when constructed with orulons and 
retired flanks. Also spelled briznre. 2. In 
her., same as cailrnci/, -. 
briti, brltt 1 (brit), v. [E. dial., also (in II.) 
brite ; < ME. brytteti, < AS. bryttian, brittian, 
divide, distribute, dispense, = Icel. brytja, 
chop up; a secondary verb, supplying in ME. 
and later, with the deriv. britten, a. v., the 
place of the primitive, ME. 'breten, "ttreoten, < 
AS. bre6tan (pret. bredt, pp. "broten), break, 
bruise, demolish, destroy, = OS. 'briotan, bre- 
ton = OHG. "briozan, tr., break, MHG. briezen, 
intr., burst forth. = Icel. brjatti = 8w. bryta = 
Dan. bryde, break, fracture, refract, = Goth. 
"briutan (not found, but assumed from the other 
forms, and from the appar. thence derived 
Spanish ML. britare, demolish, destroy). Hence 
britten, brittle, q. v.] I. trans. It. To break in 
pieces; divide. 
Mis hede the! ofsmyten, to London was It born, 
The dede body the[l) britten [pret. pi.] on four quartern 
corn. Lanytoft, Ohron. (ed. Hearne), p. 244. 
2. To bruise; indent. Hattitcell, [Prov. Eng.] 
II. intrans. 1. To fall out or shatter, as over- 
ripe hops or grain. Grose; Halliieell. 2. To 
fade away ; alter. Halliwell. [Prov. Eng ; ] 
the 'ribs ; in a horse, the part extending from 
the neck at the shoulder down to the fore legs. 
chest, claw of a bird.] The breast of an ani- "To"Diistle'wiUi7(o) To te covered with anything as . "TjS "brittsTbrit) fProb. = bret oT'birt, 
mal, or that part of the breast that lies next to if with bristles. " pl'ied to a Werent fish : see bret.] 1. A 
The hill of La Haye Sainte brittlmg vnth ten thousand 
bayonets. Thackeray. 
As spectroscopy becomes the daily work of iron-found- 
ers, and miners, and the like, it will lie found to be frro- 
fling with beautiful scientific truths In every part of the 
spectrum, which may be used in these practical applica 
tfons of the science of optics. 
J. X. Lockyer, Spect. Anal., p. 199. 
You cannot shut up Burns In a dialect bristling with 
archaisms. Lowell, Study Windows, p. 23K. 
(6) To manifest conspicuously : as, he bristled icith ex- 
citement. 
briskly (brisk'li), adv. In a brisk manner; 
quickly; actively; vigorously; with life and 
spirit. 
Ay, woo her briskly win her, and give me a proof of 
your address, my little Solomon. 
Sheridan, The Duenna, ii. 1. 
briskness (brisk'nes), . 1. Quickness; vigor 
or rapidity in action: as, the briskness of the 
breeze. 2. Liveliness; gaiety; vivacity. 
Hlsftri*7K8,his jollity, and his good-humour. Dryden. bristled (bris'ld), a. [< bristle + -ed 2 .] 1. Hav- 
3 The sparkling quality of an effervescing li- ing bristles; hence, stiffly bearded : as, " bris- 
' * tied lips," Shak., COT., ii. 2. 2. In her., having 
bristles on the neck and back: said specifi- 
cally of a boar used as a bearing, when the bris 
ties are of a different tincture, it is specified : as, a boar 
head and neck sable, bristled or. 
bristle-fem (bris'1-fern), . The common name 
of species of Trichomanes, especially T. radi- 
cans, from the bristle that projects beyond the 
applied 
young herring of the common kind, occurring 
in large shoals, and formerly classed as a sepa- 
rate species, Clupea minima. 2. A general 
name for animals upon which whales feed, as 
('Ho borealis, etc.: whale-brit. 
Brit. An abbreviation of British and Britain. 
Britain-crown (brit'an- or brit'n-kroun), n. 
[< Britain + crown : Britain, < ME. Britaine, < 
OF. Bretaine, Brctaigne, F. Bretaane, < L. Bri- 
tannia, Britain, < Britanni, the Britons, later 
L. Brito(n-), a Briton. Cf. AS. Bryteii, Britain, 
Bryttas, Brittas, Brettas, Britons: see British.] 
quor: applied also to water, as in the extract. 
The briskness of spring water, and the preference given 
to It as a beverage, is partly occasioned by the carbonic 
acid which it contains. '. A. Miller, Elem. of Chem.,8848. 
brisiuak (bris'mak), . [Origin unknown.] A 
torsk. [Shetland islands.] 
bri8S 1 t, * [ME. brissen, var. of arisen, bryseii, 
brusen, bruise : see bruise.] To bruise ; break. 
The Jewes brimeder hys bonys. 
cuD-shaped indusium. 
rionctiT' ijo w.ijo. , . 
Legends of the Holy Hood, p. 204. bnstle-graSS (bris'1-gras), H 
bliss'-* (bris), n. [E. dial., appar. < F. bris, nus Sctaria. 
breakage, wreck, formerly also fragments, < bristle-herring (bns 1-her'ing), n 
Grass of the ge- 
The name 
Obverse. 
Britain-crown of James I., British Museum. 
Reverse. 
f Size of the original. 
briser, break (see briss*, bruise, and cf. de- 
bris) but perhaps affected by breeze*, ashes, 
cinders : see .] Dust; rubbish. Halli- 
well. [Prov. Eng.] 
a. lhi.i'iJfi> H nl TNL < Brissus + 
ae U> le), n. pi. \ IL,., ^ a 
Same as Spate</Mto. 
An English gold coin first issued in 1604 by 
James I., and current at the time for five shil- 
under Charles I. 
See metal. 
(bri-tan'ik), a. [< L. Britannicus, < 
Britannia, Britain.] Of or pertaining to Great 
Britain: as, Her Britannic Majesty. 
n. Same as britska. 
t>rit), r. '. ; pret. and pp. brited, ppr. brit- 
[Also spelled bright; origin unknown.] 
of certain species of the genus Dorosoma, of 
the family Dorosomida;, in which the last ray 
of the dorsal fin is prolonged into a whip-like 
filament. The species occur chiefly in tropical seas and 
riven, but one, D. eepedianum, Is common In the United 
States, and Is generally called thread-herring. See cut 
- under gizzard-shad. 
Brissinse (bri-si'ne), n. pi. [NL., < Bnssus + bristle-moss (bris'l-mds), . A species of moss 
-tnoc.] A subfamily of Spatangida!, typified by ^j, a hairy calyptra, of the genus Orthotri- brite 
the genus Brissus. chum inn 
brissle (bris'l), v. t. Same as birsle. [Scotch bristle-pointed (bris'l-poin'ted), a. Termi- TO 'be or become over-ripe, 'as wKeat, barley, or 
and North. Eng.] nating gradually in a very fine hair, as the hops. [Prov. Eng.] 
Brissotin (bris r o-tin), n. See Girondist. leaves of many mosses. Lindley. brither (bri<FH'er),)i. A Scotch form of brother. 
Brissus (bris'us), . [NL.] A genus lof echi- bristletail (bris'1-tal), n. A common name Briticism (brit'i-sizm),. [< British (Latinized 
noids, typical of the family Bnsstdai (Itpatangi- of the thysanurous insects of the suborder Britic-) + -ism.~\ A word, phrase, or idiom of 
dai) and subfamily Brissince. 
bristle (bris'l), n. [< ME. ' 
tel, berstle (= D. borstel = 
of brust (> Sc. birse, birs: see brusfi, birse), a ^ <je O . 
bristle, < AS. byrst, neut., = MLG. borste, f., = bristlewort (bris'1-wert), n. A general name 
OHG. burst, m., borst, neut., bursta, f., MHG. used by L^dley for plants of the order Des- 
borst, m. and neut., borste, f., G. borste, a bristle, paMJ ,- ace<E . 
MHG. G. burstf,^a. brush^= l ^-^ urs ^ *>_= bristliness (bris'li-nes), n. The quality of be- 
ing bristly. 
. . , , 
Sw. borst, m., = Dan. borste, a bristle ; by some 
Brettas (sing. Bryt, Brit, Bret, rare), L. .Bri- 
tanni, ML. also Britones, Britons, the original 
Celtic inhabitants of Britain ; a name of Celtic 
origin : cf. W. Brython, a Briton, pi. a tribe of 
Britons.] X. & I. Of or pertaining to Great 
Britain, or in the widest sense the United 
derived, with formative > -t, from the root of bristling (bris'ling), p. a. Standing up stiffly Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or its 
(lH(i htirrt'ti ii/mvii (ff\r */)r./V hA STltT. i;i__ i_Z-rAi_~ .1 ... i i- . 
OHG. barren, parren (for "barsen), be stiff, 
stand out stiffly; by others connected with E. 
bur 1 , burri.] 1. One of the stiff, coarse, glossy 
hairs of certain animals, especially those of 
the hog kind which are not hairless, large and 
thickly set along the back, and smaller and 
more scattered on the sides. The bristles of the 
domestic, hog and of some other animals are extensively 
used fur making brushes, shoemakers' wax-ends, etc. 
She hadde so grete brintelis on her bakke that It trayled 
ii tin- -ri'innlr t failome huge. 
Merlin (E. E. T. 8.), ill. 421. 
i bristles. 
With chatt'ring teeth, and bristling hair upright. 
Dryden, Fables. 
r (bris'li), a. [< bristle + -yi.] 1. Thickly 
istles, or with hairs like bristles; 
'a bristly neck," Thackeray. 2. 
t bristle or bristles. 
Rugged scales and bristly hairs. Bentley. 
Bristol-board (bris'tol-bord), . [Named from 
the city of Bristol, in England.] A fine, smooth 
inhabitants : as, the British people or empire ; 
British legislation or interests. 2. Of or per- 
taining to the ancient Britons or their lan- 
guage. 
Sometimes abbreviated Brit. 
British gum lion, etc. See the nouns. British plate, 
albata (which see).- British sheet-glass. Same as broad 
glass (which see, under broad). 
13. n. 1. [Used as a plural.] The inhabi- 
tants of Great Britain, including specifically the 
English, Welsh, and Scotch. 2. The language 
