Also 4–7 bras(e, 6 brais(s, 7 breace. [ad. OF. bracie-r to embrace, f. brace the two arms; but some of the senses are taken directly from those of BRACE sb.2 q.v.]
† 1. trans. To put the arms round, embrace. Obs.
c. 1375. ? Barbour, St. Thomas, 135. In armys cane brase þame bath.
c. 1430. Syr Gener., 3324. In his armes he can hir brace.
1526. Skelton, Magnyf., 1578. A baby to brace and to basse.
1570. Levins, Manip., 6. To Brace, amplecti.
2. To encompass, surround, gird, encircle; also, causally, to put round, make to surround. (Now usually with some notion of 3 combined.)
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IX. vi. 140. Euryll … hes this jowell [a girdle] hynt, About his sydis it brasing.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Sept., 124. Bigge Bulles of Basan brace hem about.
1782. Cowper, Gilpin, 122. He seem’d to carry weight, With leathern girdle braced.
1835. Aird, Chr. Bride, I. v. A flowing wood the middle mountain braced.
3. To clasp, fasten up tightly, gird: sometimes with a reference to one or other of the senses of BRACE sb.2
c. 1325. Coer de L., 5649. Anon did hote Faste that men scholde it brace.
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 1182. Stryke of his hevede … brace it in yryne, And sett it on the barbycane.
1530. Lyndesay, Test. Papyngo, 938. Thay haue ane Boumbard, braissit vp in bandis.
1562. Leigh, Armorie (1597), 10 b. A Souldior … caused his man to brace him in a male.
1695. Blackmore, Pr. Arth., IV. 566. He ne’er before had brac’d the Helmet on.
1725. Pope, Odyss., X. 19. The adverse winds in leathern bags he brac’d.
1810. Crabbe, Borough, V. Wks. 1834, III. 105. His short stout person he is wont to brace In good brown broad-cloth.
1870. Bryant, Iliad, VIII. I. 255. I brace my armor on for war.
4. To make tight or tense; to stretch, strain (esp. the skin of a drum). Cf. BRACE sb.2 10.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 46. Bracyn, or sette streyte, tendo.
1595. Shaks., John, V. ii. 169. A drumme is readie brac’d, That shall reuerberate all, as lowd as thine.
1730. Swift, Panegyr. Dean, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 142. Then gluttony … Brac’d like a drum her oily skin.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer., III. 443. Bracing the back of the bow with a kind of thread.
1802. Paley, Nat. Theol., iii. (1827), 445. In a drum the pelt is carried over a hoop, and braced as occasion requires.
5. To ‘string up’ (nerves, sinews, etc.), give firmness or tone to. So also to brace up.
1736. Gray, Lett., in Poems (1775), 9. His vigorous arm he try’d … Brac’d all his nerves, and every sinew strung.
1740. Cheyne, Regimen, 66. Medicines, to brace and wind up the Stomach.
c. 1750. Shenstone, Elegies, ix. 14. They gave you toils, but toils your sinews brace.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & Bks., I. iii. 40. Would to Heaven his nerves had been as braced up as his face.
1879. Chr. Rossetti, Seek & Find, 56. Winter which nips can also brace.
b. fig. Also refl. to brace oneself (cf. to gird oneself); also to brace one’s heart, energies, etc., in sense of summoning up resolution for a task.
a. 1500. Chaucer Poem, in Todd, Illustr., 299. Arysyng full lyghtely my sylfe did brase.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, I. (1850), 8. An earnest longing rose To brace myself to some determined aim.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, II. xv. 306. Nothing now remained but to brace every nerve for the battle.
1876. Green, Short Hist., i. § 4. 39. Under Offa Mercia first really braced herself to the completion of her British conquests.
6. To render firm or steady by binding tightly.
1785. Cowper, Task, I. 41. A lattice-work, that braced The new machine, and it became a chair.
1803. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., I. 488. The spring lines are then lashed diagonally from one boat to the other to brace them tight.
1870. Rolleston, Anim. Life, 144. They are braced by ligaments.
b. More generally: To fix, render firm, set rigidly or firmly down. Also fig.
1849. Thoreau, Week Concord Riv., Thursd. 315. With their fore feet braced, they sustained the rushing torrent in their rear.
1873. Holland, A. Bonnic., xiii. 222. Braced by them as I was, Mr. Mullens made no headway against me.
1876. Whyte-Melville, Katerfelto, ix. 98. He braced his foot in the stirrup to afford a purchase for her ascent.
7. To join firmly, couple together.
1826. E. Irving, Babylon, I. III. 210. Which event is again braced to the former parts of the book.
