brown bill Meaning, Definition & Usage

Brown" bill`

Etymology

Brown + bill cutting tool.

Definitions

1. A bill or halberd of the 16th and 17th centuries. See 4th Bill.

   Many time, but for a sallet, my brainpan had been cleft with a brown bill. Shak.

   ✍ The black, or as it is sometimes called, the brown bill, was a kind of halberd, the cutting part hooked like a woodman's bill, from the back of which projected a spike, and another from the head. Grose.