Chiefly dial. Also 6 brasche. [perh. onomatopœic, with associations of break, brast, etc., and of crash, dash, etc. In senses 2, 3, perhaps distinct, with other associations, e.g., rash, and splash.]
† 1. An attack, assault; a bout. Sc. and n. dial.
1573. Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 292. At the bak wall wes the brasche they gaue.
a. 1600. Montgomerie, Poems (1821), 195. Curage bydis the brash.
1638. H. Adamson, Muses Thren., Introd. 8 (Jam.). The last brashe was made by a letter of the prime poet of our Kingdome.
1724. Ramsay, Evergreen, II. (title), A Brash of Wouing.
2. A slight attack of sickness or indisposition; esp. one arising from a disorder of the alimentary canal. Hence teething-brash, weaning-brash.
1785. Burns, Sc. Drink, xv. Wae worth that brandy, burning trash, Fell source o’ monie a pain an brash.
a. 1800. Gay, Goss-Hawk, 79, in Scott, Minstr. As gin she had ta’en a sudden brash, And were about to die.
3. An eruption of fluid. a. Water-brash: an eructation or belching of water (acid, bitter, etc.) from the stomach, pyrosis. b. A sudden dash or burst of rain. Cf. BLASH.
1811. Willan, Gloss. W. Riding, Brash, a sudden sickness, with acid rising into the mouth.
1825. Jamieson, Water-brash.
1849. Blackw. Mag., LXVI. 684. The wind returned … with an occasional brash of rain.
1856. Emerson, Eng. Traits, Wks. 1874, II. 60. He is a churl with a soft place in his heart, whose speech is a brash of bitter waters.
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), 52. Brash, an eruption. [Water-brash in most of the E. D. S. northern and north. midl. Glossaries.]
