[Greek: ] Brevet-Wife, subs. (general).—A woman who, without being married to a man, lives with him, takes his name, and enjoys all the privileges of a wife. A transferred figurative sense of the legitimate word.
Brew, verb (Marlborough School).—To make afternoon tea. Almost always carried on in couples, but sometimes three boys brew together.
Brewer's Horse, subs. (old).—A drunkard. For synonyms, see Elbow crooker.
Brewing, verbal subs. (Marlborough College).—The making of afternoon tea.—See Brew.
Brian o' Linn, subs. (rhyming slang).—Gin. For synonyms, see Drinks.
Briar, Brier, subs. (popular).—A colloquialism for 'brier-wood pipe.' The Erica arborea or White Heath, a native of the Mediterranean littoral is largely used in the manufacture of pipes. [Cf., Fr. bruyère = 'heath.']
1882. Graphic, Dec. 16, p. 683, col. 2. Nowadays, every third man you meet has a cigarette or a briar in his mouth.
1886. Harper's Mag., 27 Dec. There is the ever-ready BRIER-root pipe loaded with Caporal.
Brick, subs. (popular).—A good fellow; one whose staunchness and loyalty commend him to his fellows—a highly eulogistic epithet for one man to apply to another. Said to be of University origin, the simile being drawn from the classics. A writer in Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine [1878, p. 635], says the expression is logically deduced in the following amusing manner. A brick is 'deep-red,' so a 'deep-read' man is a brick. The punning syllogism is carried further. To read like a brick is to read till you are deep-'read'; a deep-read man is in University-phrase a 'good man'; a good man is a jolly fellow with non-reading men, ergo a jolly fellow is a brick.
It has, however, been pointed out that dedicatory columns of various forms have been found bearing Greek inscriptions, records of the great and virtuous. Some of these were circular and fluted pillars; but the Athenians are said to have dedicated square columns so inscribed, which gave rise to the style [GR: tetra/ ] = [GR: ônos a)nê\r ] [see Aristotle, Eth., i., 10], one whose worth entitled him to honorary mention on some monumental stone of the form described. The anticipatory distinction might, therefore, be easily accorded to one worthy of such posthumous honours. From the meritorious notion of the rectangular stone or pillar we get the living type of genuine or supposititious worth—a regular brick. A further analogy may be drawn from the clayey basis of the brick, even in a state of combination with sand and ashes—those types of instability and decay—and we naturally acquire the notion of solidity, consistency, and strength. We are thus enabled to apply the above phrase to the child of clay, who may chance to resemble it in its constitution, whose moral materials and parts have been originally so carefully formed, so judiciously tempered and
