and threaten rain.

BROOM. A besom at the mast-head signifies that the ship is to be sold:
derived probably from the old practice of displaying boughs at shops and
taverns. Also, a sort of _spartium_, of which ropes are made.

BROOMING. _See_ BREAMING.

BROTHER-OFFICERS. Those of the same ship or regiment.

BROTH OF A BOY. An excellent, though roystering fellow.

BROUGHT BY THE LEE. _See_ BRING BY THE LEE.

BROUGHT-TO. A chase made to stop, and heave-to. Also, the cable is
brought-to when fastened to the messenger by nippers. The messenger is
brought to the capstan, or the cable to the windlass.

BROUGHT TO HIS BEARINGS. Reduced to obedience.

BROUGHT TO THE GANGWAY. Punished.

BROW. An inclined plane of planks, on one or both sides of a ship, to
communicate internally; a stage-gangway for the accommodation of the
shipwrights, in conveying plank, timber, and weighty articles on board.
Also, the face of a rising ground. An old term for a gang-board.

BROWN BESS. A nickname for the old government regulation bronzed musket,
although till recently it was brightly burnished.

BROWN BILL. The old weapon of the English infantry: hence, perhaps the
expression "Brown Bess" for a musket.

BROWN GEORGE. A hard and coarse biscuit.

BROWNIE. The Polar bear, so called by the whalers. It is also a northern
term for goblin.

BROWN JANET. A cant phrase for a knapsack.

BROWN-PAPER WARRANT. _See_ WARRANT.

BROWSE. A light kind of dunnage.

BRUISE-WATER. A ship with very bluff bows, built more for carrying than
sailing.

BRUISING WATER. Pitching heavily to a head-sea, and making but little
head-way.

BRUN-SWYNE. An early name for a seal.

BRUSH. A move; a skirmish.

BRYDPORT. An old word signifying cable. The best hemp grew at Bridport,
in Dorsetshire; and there was a statute, that the cables and hawsers for
the Royal Navy were to be made thereabouts.

BUB. A liquor or drink. _Bub_ and _grub_ meaning inversely meat and
drink.

BUBBLE. Another term for spirit-level, used for astronomical
instruments.

BUBBLER. A fish found in the waters of the Ohio, thus named from the
bubbling noise it makes.

BUCCANEER. A name given to certain piratical rovers, of various
European nations, who formerly infested the coasts of Spanish America.
They were originally inoffensive settlers in Hispaniola, but were
inhumanly driven from their habitations by the jealous policy of the
Spaniards; whence originated their implacable