[f. BRAWL v.1]
1. Noisy quarrelling; wrangling; contention, ‘row.’
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVII. 360. For brawelynge and bacbytynge and beryng of false witnesse.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 48/1. Brawlynge, jurgium.
1661. Bramhall, Just Vind., vi. 154. That insana laurus, which causeth brawling and contention.
1657. Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1751), 40. Soldiers forging ale-house brawlings.
2. Clamor; indecent or offensive noise; scolding.
c. 1440. York Myst., xxx. 142. Þat boy for his brawlyng Were bettir be vn-borne.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 64. My braulyng at home, makith him banket abrode.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 43. Your unmeasurable braulyng hath altogether weryed me.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., II. ii. 6. Peace ye fat-kidney’d Rascall, what a brawling dost thou keepe.
1794. Burke, Imp. W. Hastings, Wks. XVI. 78. Noise and brawlings of criminals … raving at the magistrate.
1883. Congregationalist, May, 387. A procedure which was brawling in church, and a brawling of a very bad type.
3. The confused din of a stream or torrent.
1837. Hawthorne, Amer. Note Bks. (1871), I. 59. No noise but the brawling … of the stream.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, ix. 139. I could hear the brawling of the little river beneath.
1884. Gilmour, Mongols, 153. The brawling of the torrent rose mingled with the sound of the flail.
