Obs. Forms: 5 braas, brace, 6 brache, brase. [a. F. bras:—L. brāc(c)hium, lit. an arm.] An arm; esp. an ‘arm’ of the sea or other large body of water. Brace of St. George = med.L. brachium Sancti Georgii (Du Cange): the Bosporus or the Hellespont.
c. 1400. Maundev., xi. 126. He schal … passe the wature, that ys cleped the Brace of seynt George.
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, 103 b. Guided his boot ouer the braas. Ibid. (1481), Myrr., II. iii. 67. That renneth a longe thurgh the Royame of ynde, And departeth in to many armes or braces.
1506. Guylforde, Pilgr. (1851), 67. Ye sayd streyghtes, otherwyse called the brache of seynt George.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 142. The stroke … cut asonder a greate brase of a benche, that stode before the bedde.
