BROTHER • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Brother

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/brˈəðər/ Listen

noun

Brother n. (pl. brothers or brethren)

1.

A male person who has the same father and mother with another person, or who has one of them only. In the latter case he is more definitely called a half brother, or brother of the half blood. Note: A brother having the same mother but different fathers is called a uterine brother, and one having the same father but a different mother is called an agnate brother, or in (Law) a consanguine brother. A brother having the same father and mother is called a brother-german or full brother. The same modifying terms are applied to sister or sibling. "Two of us in the churchyard lie, My sister and my brother."

2.

One related or closely united to another by some common tie or interest, as of rank, profession, membership in a society, toil, suffering, etc.; used among judges, clergymen, monks, physicians, lawyers, professors of religion, etc. "A brother of your order." "We few, we happy few, we band of brothers, For he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother."

3.

One who, or that which, resembles another in distinctive qualities or traits of character. "He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster." "That April morn Of this the very brother." Note: In Scripture, the term brother is applied to a kinsman by blood more remote than a son of the same parents, as in the case of Abraham and Lot, Jacob and Laban. In a more general sense, brother or brethren is used for fellow-man or fellow-men. "For of whom such massacre Make they but of their brethren, men of men?"

Brother Jonathan, a humorous designation for the people of the United States collectively. The phrase is said to have originated from Washington's referring to the patriotic Jonathan Trumbull, governor of Connecticut, as "Brother Jonathan."

Blood brother. See under Blood.

verb

Brother v. t. (past & past part. brothered) To make a brother of; to call or treat as a brother; to admit to a brotherhood.

See images of 'Brother'

Etymology of 'Brother'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Brother" Quotes from Famous Books

... is the man who speaks for God. He is the interpreter of the divine will. By some means he has come to understand God's purpose, and his function is to declare it. Thus in Exodus iv. 16, Jehovah says to Moses, "Aaron thy brother ... shall be thy spokesman unto the people, and it shall come to pass that he shall be to thee a mouth and thou shalt be to him as God." And again (vii. i), "See, I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be ...

— Who Wrote the Bible? • Washington Gladden

... known that the escape of Queen Mary from Lochleven was effected by George Douglas, the youngest brother of Sir William Douglas, the lord of the castle; but the minute circumstances of the event have been a good deal confused, owing to two agents having been concerned in it who bore the same name. It has been always supposed ...

— The Abbot • Sir Walter Scott

... her chamber, so that she could partake in the spiritual repast. Their kind friend Reuchlin had prepared the way for them; and when the assembly took their seats, a solemn silence ensued. John Yeardley and "Brother" Koelne addressed the meeting, and the former supplicated at the conclusion. On their way back to Stuttgardt, Madame Reuchlin interrogated them on the doctrine of election, and was rejoiced to hear from them ...

— Memoir and Diary of John Yeardley, Minister of the Gospel • John Yeardley

... was staying in the house, and master's younger brother, besides the lawyer and young Master Jasper; so I had many things to see to, and ought to have been tired enough to get to sleep easy the night before he was buried. But somehow I couldn't sleep. I couldn't help thinking of my master as I had known ...

— In Homespun • Edith Nesbit

... told by a sailor who met him on his way into the country, that every one of the things I had given him were carried before him by a person of note; that his son did not accompany him on the road, but was carried at some distance behind with as many attendants as he had; and that a brother of his, with almost as many more followed on foot, led by two principal people supporting him under the arms. The brother had been on board along with the king, and to him likewise I had made some ...

— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. III. • Robert Kerr

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