bricole

Definitions

n. A kind of traces with hooks and rings, used to drag manoeuvre guns where horses cannot be used.

n. A kind of traces with hooks and rings, with which men drag and maneuver guns where horses can not be used.
n. An ancient kind of military catapult.
n. In court tennis, the rebound of a ball from a wall of the court; also, the side stroke or play by which the ball is driven against the wall; hence, fig., indirect action or stroke.
n. A shot in which the cue ball is driven first against the cushion.

n. A military engine for throwing darts or quarrels; a kind of catapult. Also briche.
n. Harness worn by men who have loads to carry or to drag.
n. A side-stroke at tennis.
n. In billiards, the act of causing the cue-ball to hit a cushion first; cushioning. Banding, banking, benching, and walling are all equivalents of cushioning in this sense.

n. an engine that provided medieval artillery used during sieges; a heavy war engine for hurling large stones and other missiles

French (Wiktionary)

Excuse me; Ce n'est pas grave = It's nothing; la brocante (f) = flea market; la bricole (f) = trifle, trinket; le potager (m) = vegetable garden; la mère (f) = mother

farfouiller - French Word-A-Day
And besides here are none of the old-time machines as elsewhere along our front; not a catapult, or bricole, or bible -- as some, with wicked facetiousness, have named a certain invention for casting huge stones; nor have we yet heard the report of a cannon, or arquebus, or bombard, although we know the enemy has them in numbers.

The Prince of India — Volume 02
In stockily disproportionately website design company is to entlebucher polygon and a uncultivable remoteness and bricole banteringly affect and secretary gender in consequence.

Rational Review
The chain of my thoughts led me into the preceding details, and, if I do not flatter myself, will have let you into the motives of my dramatis personae better than if I had 'more exactly observed chronology. - and as I am not writing a regular tragedy, and profess but to relate facts as I recollect them; or (if you will allow me to imitate French writers of tragedy) may I not plead that I have unfolded my piece as they do, by introducing two courtiers to acquaint one another, and by bricole the audience, with what had passed in the penetralia before the tragedy commences?

The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1