brinded

From Middle English brended (“burnt, branded”). Ultimately probably of Scandinavian origin; compare Old Norse brǫndóttr, Icelandic bröndóttr (“brindled”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹɪndɪd/

brinded (comparative more brinded, superlative most brinded)

1. (archaic) Especially of the fur or skin of animals: having a patchy or streaky pattern, usually brown or grey in colour; brindled.

   Synonyms: mottled, tabby

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene i], page 143, column 2:

     Thrice the brinded Cat hath mew'd.

   • 1845, Thomas Cooper, The Purgatory of Suicides, Book the Fourth, Stanza IX:

     If thou return not, Gammer o'er her pail

     Will sing in sorrow, 'neath the brinded cow,

     And Gaffer sigh over his nut-brown ale […]

   • 1877, Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty”, in Robert Bridges, editor, Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins: Now First Published […], London: Humphrey Milford, published 1918, OCLC 5093462, lines 1–3, page 30:

     Glory be to God for dappled things— / For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; / For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim: […]

• Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
• “brinded” in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary.