Adjacent Words

Brig definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BRIG, the termination of names, signifies a bridge, or perhaps, in some cases, a town, or burg.
BRIG, n. [from brigantine.] A vessel with two masts, square rigged,or rigged nearly like a ship's mainmast and foremast. The term, however, is variously applied by the mariners of different nations.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: two-masted sailing vessel square-rigged on both masts
2: a penal institution (especially on board a ship)

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: short for brigantine Date: 1712 a 2-masted square-rigged ship II. noun Etymology: probably from ¹brig Date: 1832 1. a place (as on a ship) for temporary confinement of offenders in the United States Navy 2. guardhouse, prison III. abbreviation brigade; brigadier

Britannica Concise

Two-masted sailing ship with square rigging on both masts. Brigs were both naval and mercantile vessels. As merchantmen, they often followed coastal trading routes, but ocean voyages were not uncommon, and some were even used for whaling and sealing. Naval brigs carried 10-20 guns on a single deck. In the 18th-19th cent., they served as couriers for battle fleets and as training vessels for cadets. Brigs of the early U.S. Navy won distinction on the Great Lakes in the War of 1812. Because square rigging required a large crew, merchant brigs became uneconomical, and in the 19th cent. they began to give way to vessels such as the schooner and the bark.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. 1 a two-masted square-rigged ship, with an additional lower fore-and-aft sail on the gaff and a boom to the mainmast. 2 US a prison, esp. on a warship. Etymology: abbr. of BRIGANTINE 2. n. Sc. & N.Engl. var. of BRIDGE(1).

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Brig Brig, n. [Origin unknown.] (Nav.) On a United States man-of-war, the prison or place of confinement for offenders.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Brig Brig (br[i^]g), n. A bridge. [Scot.] --Burns.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Brig Brig, n. [Shortened from Brigantine.] (Naut.) A two-masted, square-rigged vessel. Hermaphrodite brig, a two-masted vessel square-rigged forward and schooner-rigged aft. See Illustration in Appendix.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(brigs) 1. A brig is a type of ship with two masts and square sails. N-COUNT 2. A brig is a prison on a ship, especially a warship. (AM) N-COUNT

Moby Thesaurus

POW camp, bastille, black hole, borstal, borstal institution, bridewell, calaboose, can, cell, clink, concentration camp, condemned cell, cooler, death cell, death house, death row, detention camp, federal prison, forced-labor camp, gaol, guardhouse, guardroom, house of correction, house of detention, industrial school, internment camp, jail, jailhouse, keep, labor camp, lockup, maximum-security prison, minimum-security prison, oubliette, pen, penal colony, penal institution, penal settlement, penitentiary, prison, prison camp, prisonhouse, reform school, reformatory, sponging house, state prison, stockade, the hole, tollbooth, training school