Meanings
plural braffins
- UKregionalA horse collar, especially as used in girning.
One former winner hung up his braffin aged eighty-eight after seven decades of competing. His talents had improved with age.
2012, Jane Peyton, Brilliant Britain1 more example
There were many times when holes had to be dug between the sleepers that held the rails in place to allow the pony to travel, his braffin worn and scrubbed away. These tubs when derailed had to be lifted on with sheer brute strength. The taller pony was used to haul the tubs, usually in two's, three's or even four's from the flat to a much bigger landing […]
2010, Derek Hollows, Voices in the Dark: Pony Talk and Mining Tales, page 79
Origin
- Proto-Celtic*brāgants
- Old Englishbeorgan“shelter”
- Middle Englishberw-ham
- Englishbraffin
A variant form of bargham (“horse collar”), of which other forms include bahfam, barcom, barfing, bariham, barsham, braffam, and (with the morphemes reversed) hamburgh, from Middle English berw-ham, bergham, from Old English beorgan (“shelter”) + ham (“cover”). Or else, a link with Welsh breuant (“throat”), from Proto-Celtic *brāgants, has been suggested.
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Celtic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
braffin. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/braffin
“braffin.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/braffin. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “braffin,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/braffin.
Source: braffin on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.