Also 6–7 bratt(e. [Of uncertain origin: Wedgwood, E. Müller, and Skeat think it the same word as the prec., but evidence of the transition of sense has not been found.]
‘A child, so called in contempt’ J. In 16th and 17th c. sometimes used without contempt, though nearly always implying insignificance; the phrase beggar’s brat has been common from the first.
c. 1505. Dunbar, Flyting, 49. Irsche brybour baird, wyle beggar with thy brattis.
1557. Tottel’s Misc. (Arb.), 109. Yong brats, a trouble: none at all, a maym it seems to bee.
a. 1577. Gascoigne, in Farr’s S. P. (1845), I. 35. O Abrahams brats, O broode of blessed seede.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, I. (Arb.), 25. What syn hath Æneas, my brat, committed agaynst the?
a. 1593. H. Smith, Wks. (1866–7), I. 197. Where any sectary hath one son, Machiavel hath a score, and those not the brats, but the fatlings of the land.
1650. Cromwell, in Carlyle, Lett. & Sp. (1871), III. 9. I should be glad to hear how the little brat doth.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 479, ¶ 1. The noise of those damned nurses and squalling brats.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 15. As cheap as any two little brats can be kept.
1808. Scott, Mem., in Lockhart, i. (1842), 8/1. I felt the change from being a single indulged brat, to becoming a member of a large family, very severely.
1879. Dixon, Windsor, II. vi. 65. Repulsed in her appeal for mercy like a beggar’s brat.
b. fig. Offspring, product.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. v. 891. An ignoble and bastardly brat of fear.
1720. Ormond, in Swift’s Lett. (1766), II. 9. The South-sea was said to be my lord Oxford’s brat.
1790. Wolcott (P. Pindar), Ep. S. Urban, Wks. 1812, II. 257. Ambitious that the Brats my Rhymes Should see the Gentlefolks of future times.
