brindle

See also: Brindle

English

Etymology

Back-formation from brindled, a variant of brinded (“streaked, spotted”), apparently reanalyzed as brindle + -ed. Attested from the late seventeenth century.

Pronunciation

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Noun

brindle (usually uncountable, plural brindles)

1. A streaky colouration in animals.
2. An animal so coloured.
   • 2011, Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones, Bloomsbury (2017), page 235:

     I snatch at the puppy closest to me, the brindle, which is limp in my hand, and shove it down my shirt.

Derived terms

• Treeing Tennessee Brindle

 

Adjective

brindle (comparative more brindle, superlative most brindle)

1. Having such a colouration; brindled.
   • 2011, Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones, Bloomsbury (2017), page 18:

     It is brindle. Stripes of black and brown ride its ribs like a zebra’s.

Synonyms

• tabby (in cats)

Derived terms

• shit-brindle

Verb

brindle (third-person singular simple present brindles, present participle brindling, simple past and past participle brindled)

1. To form streaks of a different color.
   • 1841, The Metropolitan - Volume 30, page 226:

     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.

   • 1925, D.H. Lawrence, Reflections on the Death of Porcupine and Other Essays:

     It is the perfect opposition of dark and light that brindles the tiger with gold flame and dark flame.

   • 1993, Peter Warner, Perfect Cats, page 78:

     The darkest areas (the points) may brindle or become bleached by brilliant sunlight, especially in chocolate and white points.

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• “brindle”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

Anagrams

• blinder