Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A partition, typically of wood or cloth, erected in a mine for ventilation.
- n. A breastwork erected during a siege.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In mining, a board, plank, or brick lining or partition in a level of shaft, usually designed to form an air-passage or confine the current of air to a certain route. Also written brettice, brettis.
- To separate by a brattice.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A wall of separation in a shaft or gallery used for ventilation.
- n. Planking to support a roof or wall.
WordNet 3.0
- v. supply with a brattice, to ventilate mines
- n. a partition (often temporary) of planks or cloth that is used to control ventilation in a mine
Etymologies
- Middle English bretice, defensive structure, from Old French bretesche, from Medieval Latin bretescha (turris), British-style (tower), probably from Old English bryttisc, British. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The boys came at length to a brattice, which is a screen, of either wood or heavy cloth, set up in a passage to divert the current of air to a bench where workmen are engaged, and dodged down behind it, first shutting off their lights, of course.”
“The boys came at length to a brattice, which is a screen, of either wood or heavy cloth, set up in a passage to divert the current of air to a bench where workmen are engaged, and dodged down behind it, after turning off their lights, of course,”
“Across all this face the brattice had not been continued, approach up this slope being the most difficult to sustain.”
“Yves let him withdraw half the length of his charge before daring to reach out for the solid rail where the brattice began, and swing himself over into the gallery.”
“Here the brattice above was a protection to him instead of a threat.”
“Here the brattice would have to be hacked free, before it spread the fire within, flashed into the woodwork of the towers, spat molten tar over the ward.”
“In the corner between them, a great coiling growth, blackened now in its winter hibernation, stripped of leaves, clambered as high as the battlements where the brattice began.”
“As soon as he felt they should be sufficiently distant, he crept hastily up the steps and flung himself through the embrasure, to flatten himself on the floor of the brattice under a merlon.”
“A great length of the brattice is in splinters, we nearly lost a mangonel over the edge when the parapet went, but we managed to haul it in over the embrasure.”
“Then the first stone crashed short against the curtain wall below the brattice, and rebounded without more damage than a few flying chips of masonry, and the siege engines were rolled out to the edge of cover, and began to batter insistently at the defences.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘brattice’.
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Coal Mining Terms
Coal mining has engendered fascinating subcultures in industry, labor, music, folklore, environment and energy. It has a rich vocabulary as well, and I've encountered some gorgeous mining words. I...
firedamp, scrip, bituminous, anthracite, company store, blackdamp, brattice, bug dust, tipple, whitedamp, float dust, fly ash and 136 more...
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phrontistery - b
List of words from phrontistery.info
bywoner, byssus, byssiferous, byssaceous, byrnie, butyric, butyraceous, buttery, buteonine, bunting, burdet, broma and 582 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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In the Collieries
A collection of coal mining and colliery terms. Some British, some Scots, and some, Other. Many terms are quite to the point; others colorful and imaginative.
Also see Middlesmith's li...fire-damp, black-damp, choke-damp, skip, basket, gallery, Gregory lamp, pit, balance, balancer, tenter, coupler and 313 more...
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Difficult words..
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Castles and Keeps
Shamelessly ripped off from this site and others (to be named hereinafter). (Fair warning: for my own edification, I may add definitions/comments from the site, but you might want to just go there ...
abutment, adulterine, allure, angle-spur, apse, arbalest, arbalestier, arbalist, arcade, arch, armoury, arrow slit and 410 more...
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You May Tell Yourself, "This Is Not M...
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cornice, balustrade, dado, bargeboard, buttress, clerestory, crenellation, cupola, corbel, dentil, vergeboard, quatrefoil and 101 more...
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jmjarmstrong's list
Words that I used to know.
geloscopy, hunker, willy nilly, harum scarum, whacko, meh, nork, misunderestimate, atrabiliousness, luftmensch, auxanometer, hyperhedonia and 1948 more...
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Storming the castle
stockade, turret, wall-walk, balustrade, battlement, drawbridge, dungeon, moat, ambulatory, apse, barbican, bastion and 32 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for brattice.
jmjarmstrong JM is learning about brattice cloths – what a wheeze! Apr 25, 2011
reesetee In medieval architecture, a temporary wooden fortification, especially at the top of a wall. Feb 9, 2007