Also 6 brak, bracke. [prob. (as a nautical word) a. Du. brak brackish (whence Ger. brackwasser brackish water); identified by Franck with MDu. brak worthless.]
A. adj. Salt, briny, brackish. ? Obs.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. xiii. 28. Ȝet [= pour] the cleir wyne furth in fludis brak [L. salsos fluctus].
1786. trans. Sparrman’s Voy., I. 255. The Brak rivers have got this appellation from the quality of their waters, which are brackish or saltish.
1827. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXXV. 117. Living upon beef and brack water.
† B. sb. Salt water, brine; the sea. Obs. (Only in Drayton, and apparently not in general use then, as the gloss ‘salt water’ is given in the margin.)
1591. Drayton, in Farr’s S. P. (1845), I. 133. Drags their fat carkasse through the foamie bracke. Ibid. (1627), Agincourt, 185. The Sunne … Shall with the Fishes shortly diue the Brack.
