brough

/bɹʌf/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Northern England/bɹʊf/

brough noun: a halo or luminous disk or ring seen around the sun or moon, and in folklore considered to portend a rainstorm.

Noun

brough (plural broughs)

A halo or luminous disk or ring seen around the sun or moon, and in folklore considered to portend a rainstorm.
- […] about the moon , called a brough, stormy weather is looked for within twenty-four hours; hence it is said, "a far off brough and a near hand storm." If small floating white clouds appear, which are called cat hair, rain is[…]1832, Samuel MacSkimin, The History and Antiquities of the County of the Town of Carrickfergus: From the Earliest Records to the Present Time ; Also a Statistical Survey of Said County, page 271
- The corona or brough occurs when the sun or moon is seen through a thin cirro-stratus cloud, the portion of the cloud more immediately around the sun or moon appearing much lighter than the rest.1852, Henry Stephens, The Book of the Farm: Detailing the Labors of the Farmer, Steward, Plowman, Hedger, Cattle-man, Shepherd, Field-worker, and Dairyman

Proper noun capitalized: Brough

IPA/ˈbɹʌf/

Brough (countable and uncountable, plural Broughs)

A village and civil parish in Westmorland and Furness district, Cumbria, England, previously in Eden district (OS grid ref NY7914).
A hamlet in Brough and Shatton parish, High Peak district, Derbyshire, England (OS grid ref SK1882).

Synonyms:

Brough-on-Noe
A town on the Humber estuary in Elloughton-cum-Brough parish, East Riding of Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE9426).

Synonyms:

Brough-on-Humber
A hamlet in Collingham parish, Newark and Sherwood district, Nottinghamshire, England (OS grid ref SK8358).
A small village in Caithness, Highland council area, Scotland (OS grid ref ND2273).
A settlement on Whalsay, Shetland Islands council area, Scotland (OS grid ref HU5564).
A settlement next to Burravoe, Yell, Shetland Islands council area (OS grid ref HU5179).
(countable) A habitational surname from Old English.

Examples of brough in a sentence

The County Antrim farmers say that bad weather may be expected whenever the new moon appears "on her back, with the new moon in her arms, and a brough round her," meaning by this the appearance[…]1859, Robert Macadam, Francis Joseph Bigger, Robert Magill Young, Ulster Journal of Archæology ..., page 84:
Swainson, in his Weather Folklore, quotes: About the moon there is a brough, The weather will be cauld and rough.1912, Chambers's Journal, page 527:
... broughs which appeared around the moon […]1955, British Bee Journal:

Synonyms of brough

Brough-on-Noe
Brough-on-Humber

Forms of brough

Noun
plural	broughs
alternative form	bruff
Proper noun
plural	Broughs
alternative form	Bruff

Origin of brough

A metathetic form of burgh (“mound, settlement”) employed in a special sense; thus a doublet of it, borough, Brough, burr (“halo, brough”), burrow, and Bury. For the semantic development, compare German Hof (“brough, halo, nimb”).

From Old English burh (“fortified place”). Doublet of borough, burgh, and Bury.

Words formed from brough

Questions about brough

What does brough mean?: Brough means a halo or luminous disk or ring seen around the sun or moon, and in folklore considered to portend a rainstorm.
How do you use brough in a sentence?: The County Antrim farmers say that bad weather may be expected whenever the new moon appears "on her back, with the new moon in her arms, and a brough round her," meaning by this the appearance[…]
What part of speech is brough?: Brough can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce brough?: Brough is pronounced /bɹʌf/.
What is the plural of brough?: The plural of brough is broughs.

Words near brough in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: brough (page history and authors); Brough (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: 2026-09-02

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