brat

Early Modern English (ca. 1500) slang term meaning "beggar's child". Possibly from Scots bratchet (“bitch, hound”). Or, possibly originally a dialectal word, from northern and western England and the Midlands, for a "makeshift or ragged garment," from Old English bratt (“cloak”), which is from a Celtic source (Old Irish brat (“cloak, cloth”)).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɹat/
• (US) enPR: brăt, IPA^(key): /bɹæt/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: (US) -æt

brat (plural brats)

1. (slang) A human child.
   • 2012 March 2, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Friday, Mar 2, 2012:

     "So... you want to have kids someday?" "Uh... well, yes. I always figured I'd have a couple brats of my own someday..." "That's still doable, you know." "I know, but the process is a lot more complicated and less intimate, and --"

   1. (derogatory, slang) A child who is regarded as mischievous, unruly, spoiled, or selfish.

      Get that little brat away from me!

      • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, H.L. Brækstad, transl., Folk and Fairy Tales, page 297:

        He would never speak a word, - only eat and cry, and she hadn't the heart to strike it or illtreat the youngster either; but somebody taught her a charm to make him speak, and then she found out what kind of a brat he really was.

   2. (slang) A child (at any age) of an active military service member.

      an army brat

2. A turbot or flatfish.
   • 1843, Thomas Wilson, The Movement‎^{[The Pitman's Pay: And Other Poems]}:

     For the crabby awd dealers in ling, cod, and brats / And the vurgins that tempt us wi' nice maiden skyet...

3. (historical) A rough cloak or ragged garment.
   • 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer, “Line 881”, in The Canon's Yeoman's Tale‎:

     Whicħ þat þey myght / wrape hem in at nyght / And a brat / to walk in / by day-light

   • 1961, Audrey I. Barfoot, Everyday costume in Britain: from the earliest times to 1900, page 80:

     The chief's daughter wears a brat and léine girdled with a criss.

   • 2005, Seán Duffy, Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia, →ISBN, page 156:

     The prevailing style of dress in the early medieval period comprised a léine (tunic) worn under a brat (cloak).

   • 2006, Celtic Culture: A-Celti, →ISBN, page 1272:

     Women wore loose, flowing, ankle-length robes modelled on 11th-century European fashion (derived from what O'Neill called the léine) and, perhaps, a brat over these.

4. (obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect) A coarse kind of apron for keeping the clothes clean; a bib.
   • 1882, John Strathesk, “pp. 135”, in Blinkbonny‎^{[The English Dialect Dictionary... brat]}:

     [She] had still on the rough worsted apron of nappy homespun wool, called a "brat".

5. (obsolete) The young of an animal.
   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], part 1, 2nd edition, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

     Their ſhoulders broad, for complet armour fit,
     Their lims more large and of a bigger ſize
     Than all the brats yſprong from Typhons loins:

   • 1680, Roger L'Estrange, Citt and Bumpkin:

     They are your Will-Worship-men, your Prelates Brats: Take the whole Litter of’um, and you’ll finde never a barrel better Herring.

• See also Thesaurus:child.

brat (third-person singular simple present brats, present participle bratting, simple past and past participle bratted)

1. (BDSM, intransitive) To act in a bratty manner (as the submissive).
   • 1900, Ardie Stallard, Switch: A Tale of Spanking, BDSM & Romance:

     Ruthie was Ed's own submissive, a short, pretty, feisty ash-blonde New York City native who combined her submission to Ed with a good deal of mischievous bratting and a lot of sharp, intelligent conversation […]

   • 2020, Jessica M. Kratzer, Communication in Kink, page 43:

     Rather, Ana moves between playful bratting and a type of “conquer me” wantedness that good Dominants would respond to with increased control and correction.

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.

Shortened from bratwurst, from German Bratwurst.

• (US) enPR: brŏt, IPA^(key): /bɹɑt/
• Rhymes: -ɒt

brat (plural brats)

1. (informal) Bratwurst.
   • 2020, Brandon Taylor, Real Life, Daunt Books Originals, page 267:

     There are many people loitering, eating ice cream, talking, eating brats.

• Appendix:English collective nouns

brat (plural brats)

1. (mining) A thin bed of coal mixed with pyrites or carbonate of lime.

brat

1. (military) Acronym of Born, Raised, And Transferred.

• BART, Bart, T-bar

A merger of two unrelated adjectives:

• Old Norse *brantr (east), brattr (west), from Proto-Germanic *brantaz, cognate with Norwegian bratt, Swedish brant, English brant.
• Old Norse bráðr (“hasty, sudden”), from Proto-Germanic *brēþaz (“hot, in a hurry, rushed”), cognate with Norwegian brå, Swedish bråd. In early modern Danish, the latter meaning also had the form brad, with the neuter bradt.

• IPA^(key): /brat/, [ˈb̥ʁɑd̥]

brat (plural and definite singular attributive bratte, comparative brattere, superlative (predicative) brattest, superlative (attributive) bratteste)

1. steep
2. sudden

• “brat” in Den Danske Ordbog
• “brat” in Ordbog over det danske Sprog

• IPA^(key): /brɑt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: brat
• Rhymes: -ɑt

brat n (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of brat.

• IPA^(key): /bʁaːt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aːt

brat

1. singular imperative of braten
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of braten

• (Munster, Aran) IPA^(key): /bˠɾˠɑt̪ˠ/
• (Connemara, Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /bˠɾˠat̪ˠ/

From Old Irish bratt, from Proto-Celtic *brattos (compare Welsh brethyn (“cloth”), from *brattinyos).

brat m (genitive singular brait, nominative plural brait)

1. mantle, cloak

   Proverb:

   Ná leath do bhrat ach mar is féidir leat a chonlú.

   Cut your coat according to your cloth.

   (literally, “Don’t spread your cloak farther than you can fold it.”)

2. covering
3. (theater) curtain
4. Alternative form of bratach (“flag”)

• bratach

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

brat m (genitive singular brat, nominative plural bratanna)

1. broth; thick soup

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “brat”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “bratt”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Entries containing “brat” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Finck, F. N. (1899) Die araner mundart (in German), volume II, Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 49
• Entries containing “brat” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *bratrъ, *bratъ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr.

brat m pers

1. brother

• “brat”, in Internetowi Słowôrz Kaszëbsczégò Jãzëka [Internet Dictionary of the Kashubian Language], Fundacja Kaszuby, 2022
• Eùgeniusz Gòłąbk (2011), “brat”, in Słownik Polsko-Kaszubski / Słowôrz Pòlskò-Kaszëbsczi

• IPA^(key): [brat]

brat

1. supine of braś

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *bratrъ, *bratъ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr.

• IPA^(key): /brat/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -at
• Syllabification: brat

brat m pers (diminutive braciszek)

1. brother
   • 1632, Uwspółcześniona Biblia Gdańska:

     A przechadzając się nad Morzem Galilejskim, zobaczył Szymona i Andrzeja, jego brata, zarzucających sieć w morze; byli bowiem rybakami.

     As Jesus was strolling beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea; they were fishermen.

• brat in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• brat in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Borrowed from Old Church Slavonic братъ (bratŭ).

brat m (plural brați)

1. (Slavicism, rare) brother

   Synonym: frate

2. (regional, Banat) monk

   Synonym: călugăr

• brățesc
• brăți

From Old Irish bratt, from Proto-Celtic *brattos (compare Welsh brethyn (“cloth”), from *brattinyos).

• IPA^(key): /pɾaht̪/

brat m (genitive singular brata, plural bratan)

1. cloak, cover, covering, mantle, veil, canopy
2. mat

• brat-cùil

• bratach

From Proto-Slavic *bratrъ, *bratъ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr.

• IPA^(key): /brât/

brȁt m (Cyrillic spelling бра̏т)

1. brother
2. mate, pal, buddy, when used in informal speech to address somebody in vocative (brate)

There is no plural form for this noun. Instead, the collective term brȁća is used for plural meanings.

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *bratrъ, *bratъ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr.

• IPA^(key): /brat/

brat m anim (genitive singular brata, nominative plural bratia, genitive plural bratov, declension pattern of chlap)

1. brother

• brat in Slovak dictionaries at slovnik.juls.savba.sk

From Proto-Slavic *bratrъ, *bratъ, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰréh₂tēr.

• IPA^(key): /brát/

brȁt m anim

1. brother

• “brat”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran

From Proto-Slavic *bratrъ. Cognates with Polish brat.

brãt m

1. brother

Borrowed from English brat (“spoiled child”).

brat c

1. (slang) person who is very careful about following fashion trends; someone who rarely ever acts independently but rather follows peer pressure, usually maintaining an appearance of visible wealth

• Mainly used in plural, as a collective noun.
• Can occasionally be seen considered as neuter rather than common.

• stekare

• bart