Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun See brantle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun obsolete A brawl or dance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun obsolete A kind of dance, or a song designed for such a dance.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French bransle, variant form of branle.

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Examples

  • The 'French _bransle_,' he says, is like the Alman (Allemagne of Bach, etc.) -- _i. e._, it 'containeth the time of eight, and most commonly in short notes.'

    Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries 1900

  • Castlemaine; and so other lords other ladies; and they danced the bransle.

    Royalty Restored 1883

  • The violins sounded the call to places in the _bransle_, the favorite dance of the gay court, and Count Armand noted the smile of triumph which

    Historic Boys Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times Elbridge Streeter Brooks 1874

  • Happy privilege of youth,” she added with a sigh, as the youthful couple went off to take their place in the bransle, 23 “which can snatch a flower even on the roughest road.”

    Anne of Geierstein 2008

  • His days were passed chiefly in attendance upon Lady Fareham -- singing and playing, fetching and carrying combing her favourite spaniel with the same ivory pocket-comb that arranged his own waterfall curls; or reading a French romance to her, or teaching her the newest game of cards, or the last dancing-step imported from Fontainebleau or St. Cloud, or some new grace or fashion in dancing, the holding of the hand lower or higher; the latest manner of passaging in a bransle or a coranto, as performed by the French King and Madame

    London Pride Or When the World Was Younger 1875

  • French figures; [The bransle, or brawl, had all the characteristics of

    Royalty Restored 1883

  • "Faith, mam'selle," the boy count replied, "'t is a trick that may set us all a livelier dance than your delightful _la bransle_.

    Historic Boys Their Endeavours, Their Achievements, and Their Times Elbridge Streeter Brooks 1874

  • For myself, I shall lead Jane Seymour to the bransle. "

    Windsor Castle William Harrison Ainsworth 1843

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