Obs. exc. dial. Also 1 bratt, 6 bratte. [Of Celtic origin. OE. (Northumbrian) bratt was prob. adopted from OIrish brat(t masc. ‘cloth,’ esp. as a covering for the body, ‘plaid, mantle, cloak’ (cf. Gael. brat ‘haircloth for a kiln, apron; covering, mantle, veil,’ OWelsh *breth (or *brath), pl. brith, bryth, applied to the swaddling-clothes of an infant: the mod.Welsh brat ‘pinafore, rag,’ is merely the Eng. word.]
1. A cloth used as an over-garment, esp. of a coarse or makeshift character.
† a. (in OE.) A cloak. b. in midl., west., and north. dial., A child’s pinafore; a woman’s or girl’s pinafore or apron. c. contemptuously. A rag, or article which is ‘a mere rag.’ Hence Bratful, apronful.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt. v. 40. Ðæm seðe wil … cyrtel ðin to niomanne forlet eac hrægl vel hæcla vel bratt [L. pallium, Ags. wæfels, Rushw. hryft].
c. 1386. Chaucer, Chan. Yem. Prol. & T., 329. A brat [v.r. bak] to walken in by day-light.
1529. More, Supplic. Souls, Wks. 337/2. There is none so poore as we, yt haue not a bratte to put on our backes.
1570. Levins, Manip., 37. A Bratte, panniculus.
1691. Ray, N. C. Wds., 8. Bratt, a course Apron, a Rag.
1775. J. Collier (Tim Bobbin), Tummus & M., 60. Th’ treacle butter cake stickt to Seroh’s brat.
1786. Burns, The Author’s Earnest Cry, xxiv. Sowp’s o’ kail an’ brats o’ claise.
1867. E. Waugh, Owd Blanket, i. 19, in Lanc. Gloss. A brat-full o’ guinea gowd.
2. A jacket for a sheep’s back.
1862. J. Wilson, Farming, 487. This ‘Brat’ … prevents the wool from parting over the spine.
† 3. Rubbish, beggarly stuff. Cf. BEGGARY 5. Obs.
1656. Dugard, Gate Lang. Unl., § 336. 93. The Threshers—with a whisk of feathers purge it from the refuse—& with a siev from the brat or beggery.
4. (Sc.) The tough film or skin that forms on porridge, rice pudding, and the like.
1795. Statist. Acc., XV. 8, note (Jam.). Brat, a cover or scurf.
1864. J. Brown, Jeems, 11. I think I see and hear him saying his grace over our bickers [of porridge] with their brats on.
