Obs. exc. dial. Forms: 4 brol, brolle, 6 brawl, 9 dial. browl. [Of unknown origin: The Promp. Parv. explains ‘Breyel’ as brollus, brolla, miserculus; but this may be merely the Eng. word latinized. It seems possible that, as brethel was app. reduced to breel, brothel may have been reduced to brōl, but evidence is wanting.]
Offspring, child; contemptuously, a brat, an ‘imp,’ a little wretch.
a. 1325. Lullaby, in Rel. Ant., II. 177. The wrech brol that is of Adams blode.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. III. 204. Þe leste brolle [v.r. brol] of his blode a barounes pere.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 195. Fiȝtten wiþ þer wif and meyne as þei weren Sathanas brollis.
1394. P. Pl. Crede, 745. Now mot ich soutere his sone setten to schole And ich a beggers brol on þe booke lerne.
1575. J. Still, Gamm. Gurton, II. ii. Shall such a beggars brawl as that, thinkest thou, make me a thief?
1864. Atkinson, Whitby Gloss., Browl, a brat, a term of displeasure towards an offending child. ‘You brazen’d young browl.’
1875. F. K. Robinson, Whitby Gloss. (E. D. S.), Browl, a ‘brat,’ an impudent youth.
