Word.ws English Dictionary

brach

/bɹæt͡ʃ/

brach noun: originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of smell rather than by its vision”); later, any female hound; a bitch hound. Also the clipping of brachiopod.

brach: originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of smell...
Image: Canarian, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

brach (plural brachs or braches)

  1. (archaic) Originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of smell rather than by its vision”); later, any female hound; a bitch hound.
    • In ſome countreys no woman is ſo honourable as she that hath to doo with moſt men, and can give the luſtieſt ſtriker oddes by 25 times in one night, as Meſſalina did; and ſo it is with this his bratche, or bitch-foxe.1596, Tho[mas] Nashe, “Dialogus”, in Haue with You to Saffron-Walden. Or, Gabriell Harveys Hunt is Up. […], London: […] John Danter, →OCLC; republished as J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Have with...
    • Truth is a dog that muſt to kenell, hee muſt be vvhipt out, vvhen Ladie oth'e [or the] brach may ſtand by the fire and ſtinke.c. 1603–1606 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] His True Chronicle Historie of the Life and Death of King Lear and His Three Daughters. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Nathaniel Butter, […]...
    Synonyms:
    brachet
  2. (archaic, derogatory) A despicable or disagreeable woman; a bitch.
    • Avvay this Brach. I'll bring thee, Rogue, vvithin / The Statute of Sorcerie, triceſimo tertio [thirty-three] / Of Harry the eight: […]1610 (first performance), Ben[jamin] Jonson, The Alchemist, London: […] Thomas Snodham, for Walter Burre, and are to be sold by Iohn Stepneth, […], published 1612, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, signature...
    • Here's that ſhall ſtay your ſtomack better then the bit you ſnarle for. Thou greedy Brach thou.c. 1632 (date written), Richard Brome, “The Weeding of the Covent-Garden. Or The Middlesex-Justice of Peace.”, in [Alex[ander] Brome], editor, Five New Playes, […], London: […] [J. T.] for A[ndrew]...

Proper noun capitalized: Brach

Brach

  1. A surname.
  2. A commune in Gironde department, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.

Also used as

brach is also the clipping of brachiopod.

Examples of brach in a sentence

  • A ſow pigge by chance ſucked a Brach, and vvhen ſhe vvas grovvne, vvould miraculouſly hunt all manner of Deere, and that as vvell or rather better then any ordinary hound.1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Non-necessary, Remote, Outward, Adventitious or Accidentall Causes: As First from the...
  • So we'll flatter them up, and we'll cocker them up, / Till we turn young brains; / And pamper the brach till we make her a wolf, / And get bit by the legs for our pains.1848, Charles Kingsley, Junior, The Saint’s Tragedy; or, The True Story of Elizabeth of Hungary, […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]...
  • Now, was it not the depth of absurdity—of genuine idiocy, for that pitiful, slavish, mean-minded brach to dream that I could love her?1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter XIV, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […]...

Synonyms of brach

Forms of brach

pluralbrachs
pluralbraches

Origin of brach

From Late Middle English brache (“hunting dog, especially a small scent hound; female dog, bitch (?); lapdog (?)”), probably a back-formation from Old French brachès, brachez, the plural of brachet (“female scent hound”), a diminutive of brac, from Old High German braccho, bracco, bracko (“scent hound”) (modern German Bracke); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Germanic *brēkijaną (compare Latin fragrō (“to emit a smell”), Middle High German bræhen (“to smell (something); to use the sense of smell; to have a (bad) smell”)), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreHg- (“to have a strong odour, to smell”). cognates * Italian bracco * Medieval Latin bracco * Occitan brac * Spanish braco

Clipping of brach(iopod).

Words that rhyme with brach

16 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about brach

What does brach mean?
Brach means originally, a synonym of scent hound (“a hunting dog that tracks prey using its sense of smell rather than by its vision”); later, any female hound; a bitch hound.
How do you use brach in a sentence?
A ſow pigge by chance ſucked a Brach, and vvhen ſhe vvas grovvne, vvould miraculouſly hunt all manner of Deere, and that as vvell or rather better then any ordinary hound.
What part of speech is brach?
Brach can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce brach?
Brach is pronounced /bɹæt͡ʃ/ (UK).
What is the plural of brach?
The plural of brach is brachs.

Words near brach in the dictionary

  1. Bracewell probes
  2. bracewellite
  3. Bracewells
  4. Bracey
  5. Braceys
  6. brach
  7. bracha
  8. bracha levatala
  9. brachaelurid
  10. brachaelurids
  11. brachas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brach (page history and authors); Brach (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-brach.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Naomi Persephone Amethyst (NaomiAmethyst)-brach.wav.

Cite this entry: “brach.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brach. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.