Also 6 breeuve, 7 brieve. [A variant of bref, brefe, BRIEF sb. in same senses.]
1. A letter of authority; a royal mandate: see BRIEF sb. 1.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 19606. O prince o preistes … purchest he þar breue For to seke … cristen men.
1600. Gowrie’s Conspir. Select. Harl. Misc. (1793), 197. In those parts where my lord was, they would give sundrie folks breeuves.
1626. Donne, Serm., 687. The Jews had license to beg, they had a Breve.
a. 1656. Hales, Gold. Rem. (1688), 182. Our legal business in the world must be done in certain forms of breves and writs.
1873. Dixon, Two Queens, I. II. ii. 15. He was tempted to revoke his breves.
b. spec. A pope’s letter; = BRIEF sb. 2.
1536. Starkey, England, Introd. (1871), 37. Yf you folow the breves of the pope to you directid.
1679. T. Puller, Moder. Ch. Eng. (1843), 38. Performed by Pope Clement VIII., and also by Pope Paul V., in a very smart breve, dated 1612.
1700. Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 790. The Pope … committed the Execution of his Breve to the Abbot.
1823. Lingard, Hist. Eng., VI. 202. The breve of dispensation produced by the queen … was an evident forgery.
1863. Gardiner, Hist. Eng., I. ii. 79. The pope … had sent two breves to Garnet.
c. A summary, a short code of instructions, etc.
1523. Lett., in Burnet, Hist. Ref., II. 105. The more the said Breve cometh to light.
1651. Cleveland, Poems, 43. The Painters Brieve for Venus face; Item an Eye from Jane, a lip from Grace.
2. Music. A note of the value of two semibreves, now written white and either oblong or (more usually) oval, with one or two strokes on each side; rarely used in modern music.
1460. [see BRIEF sb. 8].
1480. Will of Bristowe (Somerset Ho.). An Imnar [Hymner] closed wt brevys and longes.
1674. Playford, Skill Mus., I. vii. 24. The Names of Notes in the Proportion of Time are Eight, as a Large, Long, Breve, Semibreve, etc.
1706. A. Bedford, Temple Mus., xi. 227. When Musick was first invented, there were but Two Notes, viz. a Long, and a Breve.
1782. Burney, Hist. Mus., II. 196. The black square note, called a Breve, the first and almost only note used in Canto Fermo.
1806. Callcott, Mus. Gram., iii. 26. The Breve is a square white Note.
1863. Ld. Lytton, Ring Amasis, I. 27. His sunken eyes are like two hollow breves.
† 3. Gram. A short syllable. Obs.
1548. Hall, Chron. Rich. III., an. 3 (R.). This poetical schoolemayster, corector of breues and longes.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., A breve is one time, and a long two.
4. Print. The mark ˘ placed over a vowel to signify that it is short.
5. [Fr. brève.] A name sometimes given (from their short tails) to the Ant-thrushes.
