Obs. exc. north. dial. Forms: 1 brǽw, bréaw, 3 pl. breow-en, 4–5 pl. brew-is, 5 pl. bren; also 1 bréaʓ, bréʓ (-éʓh, -éhʓ), 3 breyh, 3–4 breȝe, breye, pl. briȝ-es, 5 pl. bregh-is, briys, 6 bryes, Sc. breis, 5–6 bre, 6–7 brie, 5– bree. [OE. brǽw, bréaw, Anglian *bréw, bréʓ, bréaʓ, masc. ‘eye-lid’; according to Sievers, an i- stem, OTeut. type *brǣwi·-, brǣhwi·-; cf. OFris. (âg-)brê, neut.: the corresponding word elsewhere is a fem. â- stem, OS. brâwa, brâha (LG. braue, MDu. brauwe, Du. wenkbraauw eye-brow), OHG. brâwa, brâa, brâ, eye-lash (MHG. brâwe, brâ, Ger. (augen-)braue eye-brow, also -braune, a modern corruption from the pl. brâwen, brauen, braun), ON. brá, brǭ eye-lid:—OTeut. *brǣwâ, from *brǣhwâ. The Gothic *brêwa, *brêhwa is not preserved; but cf. brahw ‘blink, twinkle,’ in brahwa augins ‘in the twinkling of an eye.’ This points to a radical sense ‘blinker, twinkler’ as a name of the eye-lid (or eye-lash), in which case this word cannot well be referred to the same root as BROW, OTeut. brû- ‘eye-brow,’ as generally assumed. Yet the two words curiously interchanged in use in different langs., and at different periods; and in continental WGer. the brû- forms were lost, and their place supplied by forms from brǣwâ-. The original sense of brû- was ‘eye-brow’; in OE. extended and transferred to ‘eye-lash,’ so that ‘eye-brow’ was distinguished as ofer-brû. The original sense of brǣwâ- was app. ‘eye-lid,’ as in ON. and OE., but in OHG. restricted to ‘eye-lash,’ and thence subsequently extended and transferred to ‘eye-brow’ (orig. obara brâwa), the sense ‘eye-lash’ being brought down to modern times by the compound wint-brâwa, MHG. wint-brâ, winbrâ, mod.Ger. wimper. OE. had brú = eye-lash (cilium), brǣw, bréʓ = eye-lid (palpebra); by the 13th c. bru, brouw passed to the sense ‘eye-lid,’ and brew (breow, breȝ, bree) to that of ‘eye-brow’; the latter sense was retained by bree in the north, after it had in turn been taken up by brow in the south. From 15th to 17th c. bree was used by some southern writers as = ‘eye-lash,’ a curious reversion to what had been the original OE. sense of brú, BROW, q.v. (The ON. cognate brǭ gave BRAE.)
(The parallelism of brú- and *brǣwâ- is further seen in the fact that ‘eye-brows’ was expressed in OHG. by obarun brâwa, ubarbrâwo (Graff III. 315), in OE. by oferbrúa, and in ME. uvere breyhes, briȝes aboue þe eiȝes, aboue breghis. For the phonetic explanation of the late WS. form bréaw from brǽw, see Sievers, Ags. Gram. (ed. 2), § 112, 118.)]
† 1. The lid of the eye, the eye-lid. (In Layamon the breow of the first text is displaced by brouw, BROW in the second text.) Obs.
c. 890. K. Ælfred, Bæda, IV. xxxii. § 1 (Bosw.). Unwlitiʓ swile … his eaʓan breʓh [palpebram oculi] wyrde.
a. 1000. Ags. Psalter cxxxi[i]. 4. Gif ic … minum breawum beode hnappunga.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 38. Wiþ þiccum bræwum ʓenim þreo hand fulla mucwyrte.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 156/38. Palpebræ, breawas.
c. 1205. Lay., 18374. Þa hing his breowen adun [c. 1275 Þo heng he his brouwes adun].
2. The eye-brow: sometimes the hair, sometimes including the superciliary ridge. (Distinguished at first as uvere breyh, briȝes above the eiȝes, aboue breghis: since Wyclif, only north.: still Sc.)
c. 1275. XI Pains of Hell, 98, in O. E. Misc., 150. Sume to heore myd-þeyh, And sume to heore vuere breyh. Ibid. (c. 1375) (Vernon MS.), 111, ibid., 226. Þo þat weren vp to þe briȝes In þat flod aboue þe eiȝes.
1388. Wyclif, Lev. xiv. 9. That … he shaue the heeris of the heed, and the beerd, and brewis [supercilia].
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 3780. Blake horit aboue breghis and other Serklyt of hom seluyn.
c. 1420. Anturs of Arth., xxx. Bore-hedis of blakke, and brees full bold.
c. 1420. Avow. Arth., xxvii. Gauan bare him fro his stede, That both his brees con blede.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (Mor. Wisd.), 196. For sorowe my bren I knette.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, VI. vii. 96. Hir ene fixit apon the ground held sche, Moving na mair hir curage, face nor bre.
1517. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xxix. ii. His head was greate, beteled was his browes … His bryes brystled truely lyke a sowes.
1550. Lyndesay, Sqr. Meldr., 1293. He hat the Knicht abone the breis.
1768. Ross, Helenore (1789), 74 (Jam.). They … lay stane still, not moving ee nor bree.
Mod. Sc. He is dirt up to the very ee-brees.
† 3. An eye-lash. Obs.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 631. Cilium, [gloss] brye.
1482. Monk of Evesham (Arb.), 23. The briys of hys ye lyddys beganne firste a lytil to moue.
1530. Palsgr., 201/1. Bree of the eye, poil de loiel.
1656. Dugard, Gate Lat. Unl., § 205. 57. The brees (growing out of the edg of the ey-lids) … hinder, that nothing may fall thereinto.
