Forms: 1 brýsan, 3–5 brisen, 3–6 brise, (4 bris), 3–7 bruse, 4–6 broose, brose, bryse, 5 brese, bresse, brysse, burse, 5–6 brisse, broyse, brouse, 6 brusse, broose, 6–7 bruze, 7, 9 bruize, 6– bruise; (also Sc. 4 byrs, 6 birs, 8 birze, 8– brizz; 8–9 north. dial. bruzz: see also BIRSE v.). [OE. brýsan to crush, bruise, with which afterwards coalesced F. brisie-r, bruisier, bruser, to break, smash, shatter. The latter is of uncertain origin: see Diez, Littré and Scheler. (The Anglo-French form was bruser: see senses 2, 3.) The normal modern Eng. representative alike of OE. brýse and OF. brise would be brīse (brəiz). The early ME. bruse may be explained as a s.w. spelling with the usual ü = OE. ȳ; brēse may also be accounted for as the Kentish form with ē for OE. ȳ; but the ME. forms brose, broose, broyse, brouse, and the modern bruize must be from the OFr. forms, though the phonological details are obscure. The shortening of the vowel in 15th c. northern brisse, brysse, and mod.Sc. brizz, Eng. dial. bruzz, is also unusual.]
1. trans. ‘To crush or mangle with the heavy blow of something not edged or pointed; to crush by any weight’ (J.). But now chiefly in a weaker sense: To injure by a blow that discolors the skin but does not lacerate it, and breaks no bones; to contuse: a. (the body of men or animals).
α. Forms brýsan, brise, brese, birse, byrse, briss.
c. 890. K. Ælfred, Bæda, V. vi. (Bosw.). His preosta ænne of horse fallende and ʓebrysedne.
a. 1000. Be Domes Dæʓe, 49. Ne mid swiðran his swybe nele brysan wanhydiʓ ʓemod.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 61. He wile smite mid … swuerde … and brisen.
a. 1300. Havelok, 1835. That he sholde him … brisen so, that wit no salue Ne sholde him helen leche non.
c. 1375. ? Barbour, St. Vincentius, 395. Sancte Vincent tormentit wes Byrsit, beft & brynt.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 7929. My body hath þou brisit.
c. 1430. Syr Tryam., 237. Upon an olde stede, That was bresyd and blynde.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur (1817), I. 375. Sir kayes hors brysed hym ful sore.
1501. Douglas, Pal. Hon., III. 1924. He … brissit all my banis.
β. Form bruse, bruze.
a. 1375. Joseph Arim., 501. In þe þikkeste pres he … Breek braynes a-brod, brusede burnes.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. III. 59. Þe Sabynes … brusede and ouerlay þat mayde [Tarpeia].
1516. Fabyan, Chron., II. 538. The erle marshall ouerthrewe his appellaunt, and so brusyd hym, yt … he dyed.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., II. iv. 34. Least they [fishes] their finnes should bruze … upon the stony grownd. Ibid. (1591), Virgil’s Gnat, xxxvii. And with his hand him rashly bruzing slewe.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 221. And thereby brused the head of the … enemie of mankinde.
γ. Form brose, broyse, broose, brouse.
1382. Wyclif, Num. xxii. 25. The asse ioynede hym silf to the wal, and briside [v.r. brosede] the foot of the sitter.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, IV. xxx. On a shelde, brosed and affrayde They bare hym home.
1494. Fabyan, VI. clxiii. 140. [He] fell from his horse … whereof he was soo broysyd that he dyed.
1529. More, Comfort agst. Trib., II. Wks. 1178/2. The iuste man though he fal, shall not be broosed.
1530. Palsgr., 471/2. I brose with a stroke or with a fall … I have brousyd my shoulder with fallynge down the stayres.
c. 1563. Thersites, in 4 Old Plays (1848), 77. He wyll brose me.
δ. Form bruise, bruize.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 1412. A wounde bruised is woorse than that is onely cut.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., I. i. 294. I bruiz’d my shin th’ other day.
1611. Bible, Gen. iii. 15. It shal bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heele.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 332. He fell down, and bruised himself to death.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 45, ¶ 7. I am bruised to Death.
1782. Priestley, Corrupt. Chr., II. x. 261. [They] made no scruple … to beat and bruise him.
1842. Tennyson, Two Voices, 222. Cursed and scorn’d, and bruised with stones.
1871. Morley, Voltaire, 74. In England … the peasant has not his feet bruised in wooden shoes.
b. (plants, fruit).
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1047. Bot quen hit [the fruit] is brused oþer broken oþer byten in twynne.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 129. Get as manye rotes with them as thou canste and breake them not nor bryse them.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., I. i. 8. Nor bruise her Flowrets with the Armed hoofes Of hostile paces.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, Providence, xvii. Bees work for man; and yet they never bruise Their masters flower.
1681. Baxter, in Bk. of Praise (1862), 202. If death shall bruise this springing seed Before it comes to fruit.
c. To make a dent in, crush out of shape, batter (a hard surface).
1530. Palsgr., 471/2. I brose harnesse or ones flesshe, whan it synketh in with the weyghtynesse of strokes, Jenfondre. His heed pece was brosed with the stroke that a man myght have layed his hande in the hole.
1599. [see BRUISED ppl. a.]
1875. Lanc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), 60. Aw’ve bruzzed mi clog-nose wi puncin’ that owd can.
d. To maul as a boxer or prize-fighter.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Nice Valour, I. i. He shall bruise three a month.
† 2. To break (in pieces, down), to smash. Obs. [This sense was apparently from French.]
[1292. Britton, I. xi. § 1. Ceux, qi felounousement … brusent eglises, ou autri mesouns.]
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter xlv[i]. 10. Bowe shall he bris, and breke wapenes ma.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Kings xi. 18. And thei distruyden his auters and the ymagis broosiden to gydris miȝtily.
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 438/4. He toke breed and … brosyd and gaue it to his dyscyples.
1494. Fabyan, VII. ccxxiv. 286. Kyng Phylyp … broused or crased ye castellys.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 30. Not leue standyng neyther castel nor toure vp right; but I shall bruise them downe to the erth.
1535. Coverdale, Dan. ii. 40. As yron brusseth and breaketh all thinges.
1590. R. Ferris, Trav. Bristowe, in Collier, Illust. E. E. Pop. Lit., xvii. Had his foote once slipped … he would haue beene brused in peeces.
1611. Art of Venerie, 77. Let him plash or bruse down small twigges.
3. fig. (to senses 1, 2, 4) To crush, wound, disable.
[1292. Britton, I. xxi. § 7. Qi les sequestres de nos ministres a escient eynt bruseez].
1382. Wyclif, Deut. ix. 3. Fier deuowrynge and wastynge, the which brisse [MS. E. bruse] hem down. Ibid., Prov., Prol. 1. Thurȝ long sicknesse brosid.
c. 1500. Partenay, 3748. Peruers fortune … Which on reisith, Anothir don brise.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. ii. 2. Bruis’d vnderneath the yoake or Tyranny.
1600. Holland, Livy, XLII. I. 1144. How they have quelled and bruised [fregisse] the puissance of the Carthaginians.
1667. Milton, P. L., V. 884. An Iron Rod to bruise and breake Thy disobedience.
1871. Morley, Crit. Misc. (1886), III. 44. He feared that violent surgery which in eradicating a false opinion fatally bruises at the same time a true and wholesome feeling that may cling to it.
4. To beat small, pound, crush, bray, grind down.
1382. Wyclif, Lev. ii. 16. A part of the brisde corn.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xvi. (1495), 121. The lawes ben as it were two mylstones contynued to brose and grynde the mete.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 45. Ȝif þay [peas] ben harde … Brysse hom or strene hom.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 59. Take that grasse, and broyse it a lyttell in a morter.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 194. Some scatt’ring Pot-herbs … bruis’d with Vervain.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric., II. 415. Bruize eight gallons of red currants with one quart of raspberries.
1847–9. Todd, Cycl. Anat. & Phys., IV. 15/1. Larger morsels … are first seized and bruised by the dental apparatus.
† 5. To crush by pressure, jam, squeeze. (The ordinary sense in mod. Scotch. See also BIRSE v.)
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. V. iii. § 6. Wind bruised out of a bladder.
1725. Ramsay, Gentle Sheph., III. iii. Poems (1844), 38. Let my arms … brizz thy bonny breasts and lips to mine.
a. 1774. Fergusson, Drink Eclog., Poems (1845), 51. The thrifty guid-wife sees Her lasses kirn, or birze the dainty cheese.
Mod. Sc. He has briz’d his finger in the door.
6. Naut. To bruise water: see quots.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Bruising water, pitching heavily to a head-sea, and making but little head-way. Bruise-water, a ship with very bluff bows, built more for carrying than sailing.
1880. Daily Tel., 7 Sept., 3/3. While, rail under, she is bruising her water like a barge.
7. intr. with along. To ride on recklessly, without regard to fences or crops damaged, or to sparing the horse. (Hunting slang: cf. to pound along.)
1865. M. Collins, Who is the Heir? III. ii. 15. A majority of those who follow them have no notion of hunting, but go ‘bruising’ along without noticing the beautiful movements and self-made casts of the pack.
1872. G. A. Lawrence, Anteros, xii. 110. The baron hunted his five days as usual, bruising along just as determinedly as before he incurred fresh responsibilities.
