Brindle
adj, name, noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A streaky colouration in animals. uncountable, usually
- 2 An animal so coloured. uncountable, usually
"I snatch at the puppy closest to me, the brindle, which is limp in my hand, and shove it down my shirt."
- 1 To form streaks of a different color.
"Sorely too as I laboured and toiled, the reward of toil would not come ; already my back began to curve, and my hair to brindle itself with gray, yet I saw no luck before me."
- 1 Having such a colouration; brindled.
"It is brindle. Stripes of black and brown ride its ribs like a zebra’s."
- 1 having a grey or brown streak or a pattern or a patchy coloring; used especially of the patterned fur of cats wordnet
- 1 A small village and civil parish in Chorley borough, Lancashire, England (OS grid ref SD5924). countable, uncountable
- 2 A surname. countable, uncountable
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"I snatch at the puppy closest to me, the brindle, which is limp in my hand, and shove it down my shirt."
Etymology
Back-formation from brindled, a variant of brinded (“streaked, spotted”), apparently reanalyzed as brindle + -ed. Attested from the late seventeenth century.
From Old English burna (“stream, brook”) + hyll (“hill”). The surname could either derive from the village in England or be an Americanized spelling of South German Brindl and Bründl.