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abroach

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English abroche, from Norman, from Old French abroche (to spigot). Equivalent to a- +‎ broach.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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abroach (third-person singular simple present abroaches, present participle abroaching, simple past and past participle abroached)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To set abroach; to let out, as liquor; to broach; to tap.
    • 1633, George Herbert, The Agonie:
      on the crosse a pike / Did set again abroach

Adverb

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abroach (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete) Broached; in a condition for letting out or yielding liquor, as a cask which is tapped. [First attested from around (1350 to 1470).][1]
    • 1709, Joseph Addison, The Tatler, No. 146, 16 March, 1709, Glasgow: Robert Urie, 1754, p. 115,[1]
      Jupiter, in the beginning of his reign, finding the world much more innocent than it is in this iron age, poured very plentifully out of the tun that stood at his right hand; but as mankind degenerated, and became unworthy of his blessings, he set abroach the other vessel, that filled the world with pain and poverty []
    • 1820, Walter Scott, chapter 11, in Ivanhoe[2], volume 3, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable, page 285:
      [] hogsheads of ale were set abroach, to be drained at the freedom of all comers.
  2. (obsolete) In a state to be diffused or propagated. [First attested in the early 16th century.][1]
    Synonyms: afoot, astir
    • c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. [] (First Quarto), London: [] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, [], published 1597, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:
      I doe the wrong, and first began to braule / The secret mischiefes that I set abroach, / I lay vnto the grieuous charge of others: []
      I do the wrong, and am the first to begin to quarrel. / The secret mischiefs that I set afoot, / I blame on others: []
    • 1761, George Colman, The Genius, No. 6, 20 August, 1761, in Prose on Several Occasions, London: T. Cadel, 1787, Volume 1, p. 64,[3]
      When a person of high rank is destined for the victim, an emissary is dispatched to set the story abroach at some obscure coffee-house in the city, whence it speedily marches to its head quarters near the court:

Adjective

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abroach (not comparable)

  1. Tapped; broached. [First attested from around (1350 to 1470).][1]
  2. Astir; moving about. [First attested in the early 16th century.][1]

Translations

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References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abroach”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 8.