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Brown bill   Listen
noun
Brown bill  n.  A bill or halberd of the 16th and 17th centuries. See 4th Bill. "Many time, but for a sallet, my brainpan had been cleft with a brown bill." Note: The black, or as it is sometimes called, the brown bill, was a kind of halberd, the cutting part hooked like a woodman's bill, from the back of which projected a spike, and another from the head.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Brown bill" Quotes from Famous Books



... have I climb'd into this garden, to see if I can eat grass, or pick a sallet another while, which is not amiss to cool a man's stomach this hot weather. And I think this word 'sallet' was born to do me good; for many a time, but for a sallet, my brain-pain had been cleft with a brown bill; and many a time, when I have been dry and bravely marching, it hath served me instead of a quart pot to drink in; and now the word 'sallet' must serve me ...
— King Henry VI, Second Part • William Shakespeare [Rolfe edition]



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