broaches

Noun

broach (plural broaches)

1. A series of chisel points mounted on one piece of steel. For example, the toothed stone chisel shown here.
2. A broad chisel for stone-cutting.
3. A spit for cooking food.
   • He turned a broach that had worn a crown.1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret...
4. An awl; a bodkin; also, a wooden rod or pin, sharpened at each end, used by thatchers.
   • It [the straw] is laid on to a considerable thickness and firmly secured by ropes or twisted straw, and pinned down by sharpened sticks called 'broaches'1840, “Cottages - Thatching”, in The Penny Magazine of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
5. (UK, dialectal) A spire rising from a tower.
6. A spit-like start on the head of a young stag.

See all 15 meanings of broach