Obs. or dial. Forms: 3 broys, 4 brouwys, 5 browyce, 5–6 browes, 5–7 -esse, 7– browis; see also BREWIS, BROSE. [ME. broys, browes, a. OF. broez, brouetz, nom. of broet, brouet, BROWET. Of this word browet is an original doublet, and brewis, brose, later variants.]
† 1. = BREWIS, in both senses.
a. 1300. Havelok, 924. Make þe broys in þe led.
c. 1325. Coer de L., 3077. Soupyd off the brouwys a sope.
c. 1430. Lydg., Order of Fooles, Min. Poems 165. Tendre browyce made with a mary-boon.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 53. Browesse [v.r. browes], adipatum.
a. 1450. Knt. de la Tour (1868), 8. She come into the warderobe to ete browesse.
1513. W. de Worde, Bk. Keruynge, in Babees Bk. (1868), 274. Potage, as wortes, Iowtes, or browes.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 72. I will eate no browesse sops.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XIX. viii. A kinde of broth or browesse.
1658. R. Franck, North. Mem. (1821), 209. When they kill a beast … make a caldron of his skin, browis of his bowels.
2. A kind of BROSE; as the browis of the Sheffield Cutlers’ Feast, a dish made by pouring boiling water upon oat-cakes mixed with dripping, and seasoned with pepper, salt and butter.
1839. A. Bywater, Sheffield Dial. (1877), 32. Nettle porridge an’ brawis.
1880. Sheffield Independent, 3 Sept., 3/1. Returning to their hall, the members of the company partook of ‘browis’—a cunningly devised broth—without which the installation [of the Master Cutler] would not be complete.
