brank

noun

1. (plural-normally)A metal bridle formerly used as a torture device to hold the head of a scold and restrain the tongue.
2. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, obsolete, plural-normally)A sort of bridle with wooden side pieces.

   “Your armour gude ye mauna shaw, / Nor yet appear like men o' weir; / As country lads be a' array'd, / Wi' branks and brecham on each mare.”

3. (UK, dialectal, uncountable)Buckwheat.

   “One - third of brank-ground , or mixed with any other kind of grain or roots, is as large a proportion as can be given with safety”

verb

1. To put someone in the branks.
2. (Scotland, UK, dialectal)To hold up and toss the head; applied to horses as spurning the bit.
3. (Scotland)To prance; to caper.

   “Donald came branking down the brae Wi' twenty thousand men.”