sb. pl. Also obs. ME. pl. braunches. [L. branchia, pl. branchiæ, ad. Gr. βράγχια gills, pl. of βράγχιον (in sing. meaning a fin).]
The organs of respiration in fishes, etc.; gills.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxxv. (1495), 147. Some beestes haue no lounges but they haue braunches in stede of lounges.
1674. Grew, Anat. Trunks, i. iii. § 26. Fishes having their Branchiæ; Land-Animals their Lungs.
1854. Bushnan, in Circ. Sc. (1863), II. 23/2. The Pulmonary Arachnidians … breathe by … pulmonary branchia.
1866. Wood, Nat. Hist. (1874), 627. The double gills or branchiæ.
