A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1937 (DOST Vol. I).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1475-1626, 1680
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Breth(e, Breith, n.2 Also: breyth, braith(t, brath(e, breath. [ME. breth(e, breeth, OE. bréþ, brǽþ. In Sc. poetic (after English) or late: cf. Ande n.] Breath.(a) c1475 Acts of Schir William Wallace viii. 1189.
The humyll breyth doun fra the hewyn awaill a1500 Henr. Fab. 2879.
Als lang als breith wes in hir breist 1513 Doug. x. x. 136.
He … ȝeldis vp the breth 1570 Satirical Poems xviii. 30.
Gif ony of ȝow sic lyke had loist his breith a1585 Maitland Quarto MS xciv. 3. 1.
Till they had drawen thair breath(b) 1513 Doug. i. viii. 94.
To tak this … ayr and draw his braith 1513 Ib. v. iv. 79.
So clappys the braith in breistis with mony pant 15.. Clariodus i. 741.
Quhile that braith them serve 1567 Gude and Godlie Ballatis 217.
Thus Princes oft do spend thair braith 1569-73 Bann. Memor. 285.
About foure horis befoir his last braith 1596 Misc. Spald. C. I. 88.
Befoir he gef wp his braitht 1609 Edinburgh Testaments XLV. 349 b.
Quhair it sall pleis God the braith to seperat thairfra 1622-6 Bisset I. 19/7.
My Musis braith … they smoir c 1680 Wodrow MSS. 4to. XXXVII. No. 20.
He durst not draw his braith for thaim(c) 1513 Doug. ix. xiii. 80.
The febillit brath 1568 Skeyne Descr. Pest 12.
Detestable brathe 1600-1610 Melvill 243.
Feiling the brathe of God
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"Breth n.2". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 6 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/brethe_n_2>
