Forms: 1 brycg, bricg, 2–6 brugge, 3–6 brygge, 4–6 bregge, (brige), 4–7 brigge, (5–6, 9 dial. brudge, bryg(e, 6 bruge), 6–7 bridg, 5– bridge; also northern 3– brig, 4–6 brygg, 5 bregg, brigg, 5–9 brigg. [Common Teut.: OE. brycg fem., identical with OFris. brigge, bregge, (MLG. brugge, MDu. brugghe, Du. brug), OHG. brucca (MHG., mod.G. brücke):—OTeut. *brugjâ-. The corresponding ON. bryggja has the sense ‘landing-stage, gangway, movable pier’; the ON. word for ‘bridge’ being brú fem. (Da. bro, Sw. bro). As in other OE. words in -cg, the northern dialect has retained hard (g) against the palatalized (dʓ) of the south.]
1. A structure forming or carrying a road over a river, a ravine, etc., or affording passage between two points at a height above the ground.
Bridges vary in complexity from a simple plank, or a single arch, stretching from bank to bank over a stream, to an elaborate structure of architectural or engineering skill, supported by arches, piers, girders, chains, tubes, etc.
For the different kinds, as bascule-bridge, bowstring-bridge, chain-bridge, draw-bridge, floating-bridge, pontoon-bridge, suspension-bridge, tubular-bridge, etc., also Asses’ Bridge: see the first element of the compounds.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., ix. § 39 (Z.), 63. Hic pons, þeos brycg [v.r. brigc].
a. 1131. O. E. Chron., an. 1125. Men weorðon adrencte and brigges to brokene.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 31. Dele hit wrecche monne, oðer to brugge oðer to chirche weorke.
c. 1330. Arth. & Merl., 7803. This bachelers hadden a bregge y-passed.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 1679. Hit ys Mantryble þat þow sye wyþ þe grete brigge.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., III. x. 338. The brigge of Londoun.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cxcii. 169. The scottes hobilers went bytwene the brudge and the englysshmen.
1552–3. Inv. Ch. Goods Stafford., 33. To make a bruge called Hugh Bruge.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 11. The erles hede with one of hys qwarters of the lordes ware sett on London bregge. Ibid., 17. Thys yere sanke a parte of London brygge with two arches.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. ii. 72. They account his Head vpon the Bridge.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. xvii. (1632), 868. [He] came hastily to the Brigge.
1660. Walpole, in Cobbett, Parl. Hist. (1808), IV. 145. This was so severe a bill upon the Women, that, if a bridge was made from Dover to Calais, the women would all leave this kingdom.
1685. Morden, Geog. Rect., 112. Cæsar’s Bridg over the Rhine is one of the antientest in Europe.
1817. Byron, Childe H., iv. 1. I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs, A palace and a prison on each hand.
1843. Macaulay, Lays Anc. Rome, Horatius, lxx. How well Horatius kept the bridge, In the brave days of old.
β. The form brig is used from Northamptonshire northward in the local dialects, in proper names, and in literature for the sake of local coloring.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 8945. Þai … mad a brig Ouer a litel burn to lig.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, X. 86. At ane Brig beneth.
1418. Bury Wills (1850), 3. Apd Stanewelle bregg.
1572. Lament. Lady Scotl., in Scot. Poems 16th C. (1801), II. 247. Palice, kirk, and brig, Better in tyme to beit, nor efter to big.
1647. H. More, Insomn. Philos., xviii. 2. Passing as water underneath a brig.
1787. Burns, Twa Brigs. The Sprites that owre the Brigs of Ayr preside.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 46. He loved to view the mossy-arched brigs.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos (1877), IV. ix. 103. Whenever he should pass the brig of Cramond.
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), s.v., The most southerly point of the county where ‘brig’ is used … is … Bamber Brig, a few miles south of Preston.
1876. Tennyson, North. Farmer (new style), xiv. I’ll run up to the brig.
b. fig.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 242. Ȝe beoð ouer þisse worldes see, uppen þe brugge of heouene.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., VIII. 717. Faith builds a bridge from this world to the next.
1863. E. V. Neale, Anal. Th. & Nat., 63. The bridge for thought to pass from one particular to the other.
1874. Sayce, Compar. Philol., i. 53. Gestures … forming the bridge by which we may pass over into spoken langunge.
c. Bridge of boats: a roadway supported by boats moored abreast across a stream or other body of water; cf. FLYING-BRIDGE, PONTOON.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (1865), I. 55 (Mätz.). Þere Xerxes þe kyng made ouer a brigge of schippes.
1688. Lond. Gaz., No. 2346/2. They had begun a Bastion at the Head of the Bridge of Boats.
1811. Wellington, Lett., in Gurw., Disp., VII. 151. There will be no difficulty in laying a bridge or boats.
d. † Beside the bridge: off the track, gone astray (obs.). A gold or silver bridge: an easy and attractive way of escape. (F. faire un pont d’or à ses ennemis, Littré.)
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., II. (1599), 78. Not to stoppe the way of the enemy … but rather (according to an old councell) to make him a bridge of silver.
1652. Culpepper, Eng. Physic. Enl. (1809), 338. If Pontanus say otherwise, he is beside the bridge.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, III. I. 233. Who willingly made him a Golden Bridge, to send him going.
1755. Smollett, Quix. (1803), IV. 180. Lay a bridge of silver for a flying enemy.
1824. Byron, Def. Transf., II. ii. 14. A golden bridge Is for a flying enemy.
2. Short for DRAWBRIDGE.
c. 1205. Lay., 19242. Heore brugge heo duden adun.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 3955. Her brygges wounden up in haste, And her gates barryd faste.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IV. 262. Thai … Tuk wp the bryg or that the day was lycht.
3. a. A gangway or movable landing-stage for boats. b. A fixed or floating landing-stage, jetty or pier. Obs. or dial. [The Norse senses.]
c. 1375. Barbour, Bruce, xvii. 403. A brig thai had, for till lat fall, Richt fra the bat apon the wall.
1425. Sc. Acts Jas. I. (1597), § 59. All boate men and ferrymen … sall haue for ilke boate a treene-brigge, qwhair-with they may receiue within their boates travellers Horse vnhurte.
1560. Map in Maitland’s Hist. Lond. has two landing jetties marked privy bridge at ‘privy gardens,’ and Queens-bridge at Whitehall.
a. 1600. Map in G. G. Scott, Gleanings Westm. Ab., Plate 35. Old pallace bridge. Kinges-bridge.
1686. Lond. Gaz., No. 2170/4. Lost or stolen … at Billingsgate Stairs, or Gravesend-Bridge, an old Black leather Trunk.
1850. P. Cunningham, Handbk. Lond. When we read in our old writers of Ivy-bridge, Strand-bridge, Whitehall-bridge, and Lambeth-bridge, landing piers alone are meant.
1879. Lewis & Short, Lat. Dict., s.v. Pons 11. C, A plank bridge thrown from a vessel to the shore.
4. ‘A narrow ridge of rock, sand, or shingle, across the bottom of a channel.’
1812. Examiner, 14 Sept., 590/2. It is proposed to construct a Pier on the bridge between St. Nicholas and Mount Edgecombe.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, xxviii. Is there water enough to cross the bridge? The sea on the bridge was very heavy.
1835. Bell, Gaz., II. 236. Filey-bridge.
1864. Black, Guide Yorks., 110. Filey Brig … is a remarkable ridge of rocks, projecting nearly half a mile into the sea and perfectly dry at low water.
5. Naut. The raised narrow deck or platform extending from side to side of a steamer amidships, from which the officer in command directs the motion of the vessel. Also ‘a narrow gangway between two hatchways’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.).
1843. C. Bailey Loss of Pegasus, 44. He afterwards went on the bridge over the paddle-wheels, when the water was just appearing on the deck.
1858. Merc. Mar. Mag., V. 53. The Boatswain was on the bridge.
1859. All Y. Round, No. 1. 19/1. The Chinese … seized the arm-chest, which was on the bridge, with its cutlasses and ready-loaded muskets.
6. Phys. a. The upper bony part of the nose. Also the curved central part of a pair of spectacles or eye-glasses which rests on the nose.
c. 1450. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 631. The brygge of þe nose.
1483. Cath. Angl., 44. A Bryge of a nese, jnterfinium.
1530. Palsgr., 201/1. Bridge of the nose, os du nez.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., Wks. 1873, II. 174. Hauing the bridge of my nose broken.
a. 1659. Cleveland, Rupertismus, 82. Let the Zeal-twanging Nose that wants a Ridge, Snuffling devoutly, drop his silver Bridge.
1839–47. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., III. 736/2. The Caucasian nose is … elevated at the bridge.
b. A portion of the brain that stretches in a curve between the two lobes of the cerebellum in front of the medulla oblongata.
1869. Huxley, Phys., 297. [The cerebellum] sends down several layers of transverse fibres … forming a kind of bridge (called Pons Varolii).
1879. Calderwood, Mind & Br., 36. In one solid mass, with transverse lines, is the bridge.
7. In a violin, or similar instrument: A thin, upright piece of wood, over which the strings are stretched, and which transmits their vibrations to the body of the instrument.
1607. Dekker, Westw. Hoe, Wks. 1873, II. 341. One of the poore instruments caught a sore mischance last night: his most base bridge fell downe.
1731. Holder, Harmony, 11. The string of a Musical Instrument resembling a double pendulum moving upon two centers, the Nut and the Bridge.
1832. L. Hunt, Poems, Pref. 23. It has a look like the bridge of a lute.
1848. J. Bishop, trans. Otto’s Violin, App. iii. (1875), 79. The bridge … exercises an immense influence … on the quality of the tone of the violin.
8. (north. dial. in form brig:) Applied to various utensils of more or less bridge-like form, e.g., a tripod for holding a pot over a fire.
1600. Churchw. Acc. St. Margarets, Westm. (Nicholls, 1797), 26. Making a pair of butts and brigs and for the carpenters work.
1847–78. Halliwell, Dict., Brig, an utensil used in brewing and in dairies to set the strainer upon. north. A kind of iron, set over a fire is so called.
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Briggs, irons to set over the fire.
9. In various specific and technical senses:
a. A ‘bridging-joist,’ one of those joists which, in large floors, are laid upon the main or ‘binding-joists,’ and to which the flooring boards are secured.
1663. Gerbier, Counsel, 43. For the boarding roomes … Carpenters lay Bridges overtwhart the Joyses.
b. In a furnace or boiler: A low vertical partition at the back of the grate space of a furnace; the low partition wall between the fuel-chamber and the hearth of a reverberatory furnace; ‘the central part of the fire-bars in a marine boiler, on either side of which the fires are banked’ (Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.).
1838. Penny Cycl., XI. 22/1. C is … the bridge of the furnace, which retains the fuel in its place, and serves to direct the flame towards the roof.
c. Iron-works. The platform or plank-way by which ore or fuel is conveyed to the mouth of a smelting furnace.
d. Scene-painting. A platform suspended in front of a canvass.
1859. Sala, Gaslight & D., ii. 23. A ladder being placed against the bridge if he wishes to descend without shifting the position of his platform.
e. Engraving. A board, supported at each end, used to raise the engraver’s hand above the plate.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 285. What is technically called a bridge … is nothing more than a thin board for the hand to rest on. Ibid., 286. The bridge being laid over the plate, the process of etching may now be commenced.
f. Billiards. The support formed by the left hand in making a stroke.
1873. Bennett & ‘Cavendish,’ Billiards, 31. The bridge has now to be made, on which the cue is to be laid when aiming and striking.
g. Saddlery. A part of the harness resembling a buckle, but without the tongue, to which strapping is looped or sewed: also the bar (or bars) joining its sides.
1801. W. Felton, Carriages, II. 133. In each strap a bridge is sewed. Ibid. The crupper … is looped through the housing bridge, and buckled about the middle.
h. Electric bridge: a contrivance for determining the resistance of an element of an electric current.
1881. Maxwell, Electr. & Magn., I. 447. Four conductors of great resistance may also be arranged as in Wheatstone’s Bridge, and the bridge itself may consist of the electrodes of an electrometer.
10. In Card-playing: see BRIDGING 1 b.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Lab., I. 418/1 (Hoppe). I got my living by card-playing in the low lodging-house all that time…. I put the first and seconds on and the bridge also.
1859. Lever, Davenport Dunn, I. 193 (Hoppe). I’ve found out the way that Yankee fellow does the king…. It’s not the common bridge that everybody knows.
11. Comb. and Attrib. a. gen., as bridge-arch, -builder, -foot, -maker, -work; bridge-like adj.
1850. Alison, Hist. Europe, III. xviii. § 39. 567. Jourdan, having … procured the necessary *bridge-equipage, prepared to cross the river.
1536. Wriothesley, Chron. (1875), I. 59. From Temple Barr to the *bridg-foote in Southwarke.
1704. Lond. Gaz., No. 4019/4. Robert Adams … near the Bridge-foot, London.
1820. Shelley, Cloud. From cape to cape, with a *bridge-like shape, Over a torrent sea.
1611. H. Broughton, Require Agreem., 76. The *Bridge-maker [= pontiff] of Rome is blamed of Saint Paul.
1877. Outlines Hist. Religion, 237. No special deity claimed the services of the Pontifices, the bridge- or road-makers.
b. Special comb.: bridge-board (see quot.); † bridge-bote, an ancient tax or contribution for the repair of bridges; bridge-deck (see 5); bridge-gutter, a gutter formed of boards covered with lead and supported on bearers, a bridged gutter; bridge-head, a fortification covering or protecting the end of a bridge nearest the enemy, = F. tête de pont; bridge-islet (see quot.); bridgeman, the keeper of a bridge; = BRIDGE-MASTER; bridge-money, money levied for the construction and repair of bridges; bridge-note, a note in Tonic Sol-fa music that marks the transition into a new key; bridge-pin, part of a gun; bridge-rail (see quot.); † bridge-silver = bridge-money; bridge-stone, a flat stone, or flag, spanning a gutter or a sunken area; bridge-tone = bridge-note; bridge-train, a company of Military Engineers equipped for bridge-building, and carrying all the material and appliances for floating bridges; bridge-tree, a splinter-bar or swingle-tree; also, the adjustable beam that supports the spindle of the ‘runner’ or upper stone in a grain mill; bridge-way, the way formed by a bridge, the road or passage running over a bridge; also, the water-way that lies beneath it. Also BRIDGE-HOUSE, -MASTER, -WARD.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., *Bridge Board, a board into which the ends of the steps of wooden stairs are fastened.
c. 1250. Gloss. Law Terms, in Rel. Ant., I. 33. *Briggebote.
1844. Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Ch. (1858), I. vi. 221. Bryge-bot, or contribution towards the repair of bridges and highways.
1812. Examiner, 28 Dec., 821/2. General Dombrowski defended the *bridge head of Borisow.
1877. Clery, Min. Tact., xv. 207. When the defenders hold a bridge head or other fortified post on the river.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., *Bridge-islet, a portion of land which becomes insular at high-water.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., I. 52. Let it be thy pensil’s strife To paint a *bridgeman to the life.
1683. Lond. Gaz., No. 1862/5. The Warden, Bridgemen, and Burgesses of Your Majesties Corporation of Henley upon Thames.
1783. Hamilton, in Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 181. The duke’s bridge-man told me also, that … this great river was perfectly dry for some seconds.
1826. Protests Lords, III. 70. The taxes imposed on the land in the shape of road and *bridge money.
1879. Curwen, Mus. Theory, 54. We call the tone represented by the *bridge-note the ‘Transmutation-tone.’
1741. Compl. Fam.-Piece, II. i. 320. Let your *Bridge-Pin be something above your Touch-hole.
1851. Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh., 11. *Bridge-rails … are now much used in barrow-ways, instead of tram-plates.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, III. 692. Beside flat rails … we have bridge rails employed, which have the form of a reversed U.
1884. Athenæum, 16 Aug., 209/2. Simon de Montfort’s charter for the remission of gable-pence and *bridge-silver to the burgesses of Leicester.
1876. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss., *Bridge Stone, a stone laid from the pavement to the entrance door of a house over a sunk area and supported by an arch.
1879. Curwen, Mus. Theory, 54. The notation of Transition by means of *Bridge-tones we call the ‘proper notation.’
1617. Markham, Caval., V. 54. The draught-breadthes … extend from the breast of the Horse to the *bridge-tree of the Coach.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, I. 69. One end of the bridge-tree which supports the spindle rests upon the wall.
1823. Blackw. Mag., XIII. 335. A sort of *bridgeway betwixt this world and infinity.
1884. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxi. 156. As we got under the lee of the bridge the wind failed us and we remained motionless in the bridge way.
