britten
britten Lexical Profile
• noun
Edward Benjamin Britten (1913–1976), a prominent twentieth-century English composer, conductor, and pianist renowned for his operas such as 'Peter Grimes' and orchestral works like 'The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra'.
"The symphony orchestra opened its autumn season with a stirring performance of a work by Britten."
• verb
Scottish To break, carve, or cut into pieces, especially to quarter and dress a deer or game animal after a hunt (archaic or dialectal).
"In medieval hunting ballads, the huntsmen would gather in the clearing to britten the stag before returning to the castle."
Word Nuance & Usage
As a common verb, 'britten' is an archaic and Scottish dialectal term meaning to break or quarter a deer; when capitalized as 'Britten', it most commonly refers to the twentieth-century English composer Benjamin Britten.
• Rhymes for britten
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
The archaic verb derives from Middle English 'britnen', from Old English 'brytnian' (to divide, distribute, or break into pieces), which is related to Old Norse 'brytja' (to chop up).
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.