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Definition of Brank
1. n. Buckwheat.
2. n. A sort of bridle with wooden side pieces.
3. v. i. To hold up and toss the head; -- applied to horses as spurning the bit.
Definition of Brank
1. Noun. (usually in the plural) A metal bridle formerly used as a torture device to hold the head of a scold and restrain the tongue ¹
2. Verb. To put someone in the branks ¹
¹ Source: wiktionary.com
Definition of Brank
1. a device used to restrain the tongue [n -S]
Lexicographical Neighbors of Brank
Literary usage of Brank
Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:
1. A History of Muhlneberg County by Otto Arthur Rothert (1913)
"This time we did not smile, but cast glances at each other, to see which of us
must die. EPHRAIM M. brank, ABOUT 1850 “Wimen again the rifle flashed, ..."
2. Southey's Common-place Book by Robert Southey (1876)
"brank- sey. Sturt's hideous house. Entry of the vessel from Newfoundland.
Sand shower. Effect of wind in confusing the head. Rick- man's bush shelter from a ..."
3. England and the English in the Eighteenth Century: Chapters in the Social by William Connor Sydney (1891)
"... ‘—The brank, or ‘Gossip's Bridle' —The whipping post— A country clergyman's
book of accounts—Defoe's tour through England—Arthur Young's peregrinations. ..."
4. Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix by John Harland (1873)
"THE SCOLD'S brank OR BRIDLE. HANGING up in the Warrington Museum may be seen a
representation of a withered female face wearing the brank or scold's bridle; ..."
5. The Scottish Gallovidian Encyclopedia by John Mactaggart (1876)
"BRANGE.—To kick, to plunge, and knock things to desolation, like a mad horse.
brank.S.—Old wooden bridles, also a disorder of the neck. BRANNER.—A brander. ..."
6. Catalogue of Antiquities, Works of Art and Historical Scottish Relics by Albert Way (1859)
"An IRON brank, fur the discipline of scolds and refractory females. It is marked
with aW crowned, which has led to the supposition that it may be of the ..."
7. Woman Under the English Law: From the Landing of the Saxons to the Present Time by Arthur Rackham Cleveland (1896)
"... but afterwards in all cases where this plea was allowed—Punishments inflicted
upon women—The brank employed as a punishment in the present century—Its ..."
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