Also 5–6 brayl(e, -ll(e, 7 brale, braile. [a. OF. brail, earlier braiel:—L. brācāle ‘breech-girdle, waist-belt for keeping up the breeches,’ form brācæ breeches; hence girdle, cincture, in other senses; in sense 1 braiel occurs in Wace.]
1. pl. Small ropes fastened to the edges of sails to truss them up before furling.
a. 1450. Pilgrims Sea-Voy., 33, in Stacions Rome (1867), 38. Y howe! trussa! hale in the brayles!
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 22. The Brales are small ropes reeued thorow Blockes … with them we furle or farthell our sailes acrosse.
1762–9. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 287. The sailors … man the enfolding brails.
1885. W. E. Norris, Adrian Vidal, II. 224. ‘Just catch hold of those brails, Adrian, will you?’ said Charley, ‘and haul on them when I tell you.
b. ? A rope attached to a fishing net for a similar purpose.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Catal., 195. Minnow gangs, brails, gangings, used in various sea fisheries.
1883. Abbott, in Glasgow Weekly Her., 14 July, 8/1. Some [of the fish] … made their way between the brail and the net.
2. A girdle used to confine a hawk’s wings.
1828. Sebright, Hawking, 12. The brail … is a thong of soft leather with a slit … along the middle.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. IV. i. § 6. 295. When first hooding her, the brail should be used.
3. pl. The feathers about a hawk’s rump; also attrib., as in brail-feathers.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, A viij b. The same federis ye shall call the brayles or the brayle federis.
1575. Turberv., Bk. Falconrie, 278. All the brayles and smal fethers of the trayne.
1611. Cotgr., Brayeul, feathers about a hawkes fundament, called by our Faulconers the brayle.
