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brat

noun
/bɹæt//bɹɑt/US

Etymology

Early Modern English (c. 1500) slang term meaning "beggar's child". Possibly from Scots bratchet (“bitch, hound”), in which case it would be a doublet of brachet. Another possibility is that it was originally a dialectal word, from northern and western England and the Midlands, for a "makeshift or ragged garment," from Old English bratt (“cloak”), which is from a Celtic source (Old Irish brat (“cloak, cloth”)). In the sense "characteristic of a confident and assertive woman", coined by English singer and songwriter Charli XCX in her 2024 album Brat, though occasional earlier uses of the word with a "reclaimed" or ironic, positive connotation existed, including in LGBTQ slang for people of certain femme or feminine-leaning personalities.

  1. derived from bratt — “cloak”
  2. derived from bratchet — “bitch, hound”

Definitions

  1. A human child.

    • "So... you want to have kids someday?" "Uh... well, yes. I always figured I'd have a couple brats of my own someday..." "That's still doable, you know." "I know, but the process is a lot more complicated and less intimate, and --"

  2. A turbot or flatfish.

    • For the crabby awd dealers in ling, cod, and brats / And the vurgins that tempt us wi' nice maiden skyet...

  3. A rough cloak or ragged garment.

    • The chief's daughter wears a brat and léine girdled with a criss.
    • The prevailing style of dress in the early medieval period comprised a léine (tunic) worn under a brat (cloak).
    • Women wore loose, flowing, ankle-length robes modelled on 11th-century European fashion (derived from what O'Neill called the léine) and, perhaps, a brat over these.
  4. ›+ 8 more definitions

    1. A coarse kind of apron for keeping the clothes clean

      A coarse kind of apron for keeping the clothes clean; a bib.

      • [She] had still on the rough worsted apron of nappy homespun wool, called a "brat".

    2. The young of an animal.

      • Their ſhoulders broad, for complet armour fit, Their lims more large and of a bigger ſize Than all the brats yſprong from Typhons loins:
      • They are your Will-Worship-men, your Prelates Brats: Take the whole Litter of’um, and you’ll finde never a barrel better Herring.

    3. To act in a bratty manner as the submissive.

      • Ruthie was Ed's own submissive, a short, pretty, feisty ash-blonde New York City native who combined her submission to Ed with a good deal of mischievous bratting and a lot of sharp, intelligent conversation […]
      • Rather, Ana moves between playful bratting and a type of “conquer me” wantedness that good Dominants would respond to with increased control and correction.

    4. Characteristic of a confident and assertive woman.

      • kamala IS brat
      • Starmer's Tory predecessors Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss were identified as brat by 15 percent each of those asked.

    5. Bratwurst.

      • There are many people loitering, eating ice cream, talking, eating brats.

    6. A thin bed of coal mixed with pyrites or carbonate of lime.

    7. Acronym of bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast, the basis of a diet formerly recommended…

      Acronym of bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast, the basis of a diet formerly recommended for an upset stomach.

      • For diarrhea caused by a stomach virus or a meal that didn’t agree with you, try the BRAT diet, says James Lee, MD, gastroenterologist with St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, Calif.

    8. Acronym of Bradley reactive armor tile.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for brat. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA