A scold's bridle, sometimes called a witch's bridle, a gossip's bridle, a brank's bridle, or simply branks, [1] was an instrument of punishment, as a form of public humiliation. [2]

“Brank.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brank. Accessed 31 Dec. 2025.

The Brank’s or Scold’s Bridle was a torture device commonly used to punish women in medieval times, it was considered a “lesser” kind of torture device during the medieval period.

Jan 2, 2025 · brank (plural branks) (usually in the plural) A metal bridle formerly used as a torture device to hold the head of a scold and restrain the tongue. (obsolete, UK, Scotland, dialect, …

Brank definition: A device consisting of a metal frame for the head and a bit to restrain the tongue, formerly used to punish scolds.

Definition of 'brank' brank in British English (bræŋk ) verb (intransitive) Scottish dialect

Define brank. brank synonyms, brank pronunciation, brank translation, English dictionary definition of brank. or branks n. A device consisting of a metal frame for the head and a bit to …

The word “brank” is derived from Northern English dialect, potentially tracing back to Old English or Dutch origins. It appears in texts from the 16th century onwards, capturing a form of social …

BRANK definition: to hold up and toss the head, as a horse when spurning the bit or prancing. See examples of brank used in a sentence.

The earliest known use of the noun brank is in the late 1500s. OED's earliest evidence for brank is from 1577, in a translation by Barnabe Googe, poet and translator.