subs. (common).—Breath.
TO MAKE WHITE BROTH OF, verb. phr. (old).—To boil to death.
A BROTH OF A BOY, subs. phr. (common).—A downright good fellow.
1819–24. BYRON, Don Juan, viii., 24. But Juan was quite A BROTH OF A BOY, a thing of impulse and a child of song.
1877. BESANT and RICE, This Son of Vulcan, xx. You ought to have been a preacher and a boy. Faith, and a BROTH OF A BOY, and a BROTH of a preacher you’d have made.
