American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A member of the Girl Scouts from six through eight years of age.
- n. A bar of moist, usually chocolate cake, often with nuts.
- n. A small sprite thought to do helpful work at night.
- n. A brown trout.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Scotland, a spirit supposed to haunt houses, particularly farm-houses. The brownie was believed to be very useful to the family, particularly if treated well by them, and to the servants, for whom while they slept he was wont to do many pieces of drudgery. In appearance the brownie was said to be meager, shaggy, and wild.
- n. A small square piece of rich cake, usually made with chocolate.
- n. folklore A mythical creature, a helpful elf who would do people′s housework for them.
- n. paganism A household spirit or revered ancestor.
- n. Australia, New Zealand (colloquial) A tall, long-necked beer bottle, made from brown coloured glass.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Scot. An imaginary good-natured spirit, who was supposed often to perform important services around the house by night, such as thrashing, churning, sweeping.
- n. (folklore) fairies that are somewhat mischievous
- n. square or bar of very rich chocolate cake usually with nuts
- n. a junior Girl Scout
- From brown + -ie (“diminutive suffix”). (Wiktionary)
- Sense 3, from the notion of the sprite as a tiny brown man. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
“But as far as gratification, the brownie is always there.”
“Stay tuned for next week where I will be participating (2 consecutive weeks, woo hoo!) in brownie buttons.”
“Place in brownie pan or large pan and smash it all down (best technique is to put Saran Wrap over one pan and use another pan to squash it down).”
“If this brownie is not a winner, I will not touch Dulce de Leche ever again!”
“I think the minority that still thinks they win brownie points by acting snide are dinosaurs crowded in the last warm valley, and are waking up to how out of touch with reality they are.”
“Yes, he might be doing this to gain brownie points, increase his audience size, and even, oh my god, I must say it, to someday increase his profit line.”
“Because a 100-pound brownie is far more fun that way.”
“I love to bake but I only ever want one, maybe two, cookies out of a batch or one half of a regular serving size of brownie from the pan.”
“On the last night of their trip, Chuck convinced Kristin that they had to return to the park to get a brownie from a street vendor.”
“Switzerland wants to win brownie points with the USA because of the tax haven bank scandal … read the European papers, they all talk about it.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘brownie’.
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
Alle Menschen werden Brüder - sooner or later? Derogatory terms for anybody different.
Turned this up on etymonline.com (link). It's amazing.
1937, coined in the fantasy tales of J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973).
On a blank leaf I scrawled: 'In a hole...
how brown is used
A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down!
Names of 'the Devil himself, the devils his "flaming ministers", household goblins, rural demons, bogles, sprites, and fairies of all kinds' mentioned in Charles P.G. Scott's 'The Devil and His Imp...
Anything related to Scottish culture, cuisine, language, history and so on. Does not include Gaelic words unless acceptable (roughly speaking!) in a wider sense.
Looking for tweets for brownie.