Forms: 1 briosa, breosa, 4–6 brese, 5 breze, breas, 6 bryze, 6–7 brize, brizze, 7 brieze, briese, breise, brise, breez, (bree, brye). 4– breese, 7– breeze, 6 arch. brize). [OE. briosa, breosa masc.: conjecturally referred by some to BRIMSE; but there appears to be no ground for supposing any connection.]
1. A gadfly: a name given to various dipterous insects, esp. of the genera Œstrus (BOT-FLY) and Tabanus, which annoy horses and cattle. arch. or dial. † b. Sea-breeze: a parasite infesting some fish (cf. Gr. οἶστρος). Obs. Also fig.
a. 800. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 7/20. Asilo, briosa. Ibid., 49/42. Tabunus, briosa.
c. 1380. Chaucer, Balade. I wol me venge on loue as doþe a breese On wylde horsse.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., VI. i. 24. As doth a steare … With his long taile the bryzes brush away.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 329. Certain Brees and horse-flies come of it [timber].
1611. Cotgr., Tahon, a Brizze, Brimsee, Gadbee, Dunflie, Oxeflie. Tahon Marin, the sea Brizze; a kind of worm found about some Fishes.
1641. Milton, Ch. Discip., II. (1851), 34. They deliver up the poor transformed heifer of the Commonwealth to be stung and vext with the breese and goad of oppression.
1661. K. W., Conf. Charac. (1860), 62. By the biting of this brye they run headlong after superiority.
a. 1725. Pope, Odyss., XXII. 335. Like oxen maddened by the breeze’s sting.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, II. 44. O pain! pain! pain!… The fateful brize!
† 2. Applied vaguely to other insects. Obs.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter civ. 34. Brese, of whilk na tale ne ware.
1401. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 54. Whan the first angel blew … ther rose smotheryng smoke, and brese therinne [1611 locusts (Rev. ix. 3, etc.)].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 49. Brese, locusta.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 412/3. That same tyme cam in to fraunce brezes or locustes Innumerable.
3. Comb., as breeze-fly = BREEZE 1.
1572. Mascall, Govt. Cattle (1627), 34. To make that the breese-flie shall not annoy & bite cattell.
1868. Wood, Homes without H., xxvi. 511. Breeze Fly (Œstrus bovis).
