Also 5–7 braie, braye. [ME. brayen, a. OF. breie-r (mod.F. broyer), corresp., according to Diez, with Pr. and Sp. bregar, It. brigare. Storm would derive the Romanic words from Teut. brek-an to break.]
1. trans. To beat small; to bruise, pound, crush to powder; usually in a mortar.
1382. [see BRAYED ppl. a.]
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 26. Take, bray tho brawne of aȝt capon.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 47. Brayyn, or stampyn in a mortere, tero.
c. 1470. Bk. Quintessence, 11. Take þat blood … and braie it wiþ þe .10. part of comen salt.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. lxii. [lxv.] 212. The Englysshmen were fayne to gather the thystelles in the feldes, and braye them in a morter.
1610. Markham, Masterp., II. c. 383. Stoppe the foot with nettles and salt braid together.
c. 1615. Chapman, Odyss., X. 268. That foul Cyclop that their fellows bray’d Betwixt his jaws.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 86. The Kernels of this Fruit the Arabs bray in a Mortar.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, lv. (1884), 541. So she was to be turned out of doors—or brayed alive in the double gilt pestle and mortar.
b. fig.; freq. with ref. to Prov. xxvii. 22.
1535. Coverdale, Prov. xxvii. 22. Though thou shuldest bray a foole with a pestell in a morter like otemeell, yet wil not his foolishnesse go from him.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 78. The word of God is not preached vnto them, and as it were braied, punned, interpreted and expounded.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., II. iii. Sir, with an Argument, He’ll bray you in a mortar.
1626. T. H., trans. Caussin’s Holy Crt., 302. We must bray togeather, the matters of prayer, as Aromatique spices, with the discussion of our understanding.
1664. Butler, Hud., II. Heroic Epist., 35. Nor being … bray’d so often in a Mortar, Can teach you wholesom Sense, and Nurture.
1855. Browning, Men & Wom., Pretty Woman. But for loving, why, you would not, sweet, Though we prayed you, Paid you, brayed you In a Mortar.
2. Technical uses: † a. To crush flax or hemp with a brake. [F. broyer le chanvre.] Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. xcvii. (1495), 663. Flexe is … beten and brayd and carflyd.
1530. Palsgr., 462/2. I bray in a brake, as men do hempe.
b. To temper and spread printing-ink.
1688. [see BRAYER2].
1706. in Phillips. Hence in Bailey, etc.
c. To pound and scour (woollen cloth).
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 342/1. The newly-woven cloth requires to be scoured or brayed in order to remove the oil … and the size.
3. To beat, thrash. dial.
1808. Cumbr. Ballads, xxxiv. 77. She brays the lasses, starves the lads.
1864. Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., s.v., I’ll bray thy back for thee.
