braying, verbal noun

Forms:
braeing, braidingShow more Also braeing, braiding, breing, breying.
Origin:
From bray verb2.
1. The process or action of working skins.
1848 H.H. Methuen Life in Wilderness 259 (Pettman)A process commonly termed braiding which they perform by constantly rubbing it (sc. the skin) in their hands, greasing it, and thumping it with large sticks or stones, till it becomes soft and pliable.
1896 R. Wallace Farming Indust. of Cape Col. 438Braying is the simple and largely mechanical process by which raw hides are prepared for the making of the rough white leather-harness in use in the country districts of the Colony, and of..‘rims’ or powerful leather ropes.
1913 A. Glossop Barnes’s S. Afr. Hsehold Guide 318In breing unsalted fat only must be used, and hard fat is the best.
1937 H. Sauer Ex Afr. 193Buffalo, giraffe, hippo, or rhinoceros hide..is trimmed to about the thickness of a lady’s finger and made very pliable and supple by a process of ‘braying’ or constant rubbing by a greasy hand.
2. combination
braying-pole noun, bray-paal (see bray verb2).
1937 Handbk for Farmers (Dept of Agric. & Forestry) 1104Such a riem is 70 to 80 yards in length. It is looped over the beam of a breying-pole or a strong branch of a tree.
The process or action of working skins.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

18481937

Compounds