subs. (common).—A Quaker. [An allusion to the hat once peculiar to the ‘Society of Friends’].

1

  1712.  Spectator, 276. [BROAD-BRIM is used as the name of a Quaker correspondent.]

2

  1750.  FIELDING, Tom Jones, VII., x. This the Quaker had observed, and this, added to the rest of his behaviour, inspired honest BROAD-BRIM with a conceit that his companion was, in reality, out of his senses.

3

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 483.

        Therefore the BROAD-BRIMS, for the knave,
Upon this hillock dug a grave.

4

  1864.  Reader (quoted in Notes and Queries, 5, ix., 263). BROADBRIM, a Quaker. This word clearly owes its origin to the peculiar hat worn by the Society of Friends.

5

  1876.  J. GRANT, One of the Six Hundred, i. The sly BROAD-BRIMS and popularity-hunters of the Peace Society sent a deputation to the Emperor Nicholas.

6