name
Meaning 1
A diminutive of the female given names Breanna or Breyon.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
bree
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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homophone: bree
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homophone: Brie
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/bɹiː/
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rhymes with -iː
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CMU ARPABET: B R IY1 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
name
Meaning 2
A surname.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
The eyelid.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Scotland, dialectal, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
The eyebrow.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Scotland, dialectal, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
The brow; forehead.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Scotland
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
Broth.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: obsolete outside Scotland
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Etymology
Shortened.
Reduced Anglicized form of Irish Ó Breaghaigh. This surname is also borrowed from Dutch Bree.
From Middle English brewe, bre, bregh, from Old English brēġ (“eyelid”) (Anglian dialect). Compare West Saxon brǣw, brēaw, brēaġ (“eyelid”), from Proto-Germanic *brēwō. Cognate with Dutch (wenk)brauw, German Braue. Compare brae from the same source. Apparently related to brow.
From Middle English bre, breie (“broth; gravy”), apparently from Old English brīw, brīġ (“pottage; porridge”), from Proto-West Germanic *brīw (“porridge; mash”), whence also German Brei, Dutch brij. Alternatively, the word could be a cognate of German Brühe (“broth”), from Middle High German brüeje, from the verb brüejen (“to scald, boil”), from Proto-Germanic *brōaną, whence modern German brühen, Dutch broeien, Middle Low German brȫjen. This is less likely, however, since the verb is not attested in English nor in Old Norse. Both paths eventually lead to the Proto-Indo-European root *bhrewh1- (“to boil, toss, cook, brew”), whence also English broth and brew.