Also 6 brytte, brite, brette, 6–7 brit, 7–8 brut, 5– brett. [Derivation and etymological form uncertain: written also bert, burt, byrte, BIRT q.v.]
† 1. The name of a fish, identified in some places with the Brill, in others with the Turbot; = BIRT.
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, 852, in Babees Bk. (1868), 175. Lynge, brett & fresche turbut.
1555. Eden, Decades W. Ind. (Arb.), 297. Hearynges, coddes, haddockes and brettes.
1570. Levins, Manip., 148. A Brit, fish, rhombus.
1601. J. Theyer, Dutch Fishing, in Phenix, I. 228. All along the Coast of England … are innumerable shoals … of … Scate, Brett, Gurnet, Turbutt.
1610. Folkingham, Art of Survey, IV. iii. 63. Sturgion, Turbot, Porpuis, Seale, Bret, Tunie.
1611. Cotgr., Bertonneau, a bret, or Turbot.
1671. Ray, Corr. (1848), 94. What they call Bret in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and … in all the east part of England, is the turbut of the west country, where the name Bret is not known.
1836. Yarrell, Brit. Fishes (1859), I. 642. Another name quoted among those in use for the Brill, namely the Brett.
2. The spawn or fry of the herring; = BRIT.
1725. Dudley, in Phil. Trans., XXXIII. 262. He has seen this Whale … to take in a Sort of reddish Spawn or Brett, as some call it, that … will lie upon the Top of the Water, for a Mile together.
1867. F. Francis, Bk. Angling, ix. (1880), 308. Bret, or herring sail, on which they have been feeding.
