What does "branks" mean?

A punishment device, especially for scolding women, consisting of a cage to enclose the head, with a metal gag for the mouth; a scold's bridle.

What is a synonym for "branks"?

Common synonyms include: crank, pillory, scold's bridle, scold's bridle, stocks, treadmill.

//bɹæŋks// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A punishment device, especially for scolding women, consisting of a cage to enclose the head, with a metal gag for the mouth; a scold's bridle. historical
"Plot, in his History of Staffordshire, describes the branks used at Newcastle-under-Lyme, and at Walsall, in the reign of James II."

"Plot, in his History of Staffordshire, describes the branks used at Newcastle-under-Lyme, and at Walsall, in the reign of James II."

Origins: First recorded in Scotland in 1567.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.