BRAND

Definitions

1. 1. A burning piece of wood; or a stick or piece of wood partly burnt, whether burning or after the fire is extinct. Snatching a live brand from a wigwam, Mason threw it on a matted roof. Palfrey.
2. 2. A sword, so called from its glittering or flashing brightness. [Poetic] Tennyson. Paradise, so late their happy seat, Waved over by that flaming brand. Milton.
3. 3. A mark made by burning with a hot iron, as upon a cask, to designate the quality, manufacturer, etc., of the contents, or upon an animal, to designate ownership; -- also, a mark for a similar purpose made in any other way, as with a stencil. Hence, figurately: Quality; kind; grade; as, a good brand of flour.
4. 4. A mark put upon criminals with a hot iron. Hence: Any mark of infamy or vice; a stigma. The brand of private vice. Channing.
5. 5. An instrument to brand with; a branding iron.
6. 6. Any minute fungus which produces a burnt appearance in plants. The brands are of many species and several genera of the order Pucciniæi.