Brand

Brand - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

BRAND, n.

1. A burning piece of wood; or a stick or piece of wood partly burnt, whether burning or after the fire is extinct.

2. A sword, either from brandishing, or from its glittering brightness; now obsolete,unless in poetry.

3. A thunder-bolt.

4. A mark made by burning with a hot iron, as upon a criminal, or upon a cask; a stigma; any note of infamy.

BRAND, v.t. To burn or impress a mark with a hot iron; as, to brand a criminal, by way of punishment; or to brand a cask or any thing else, for the purpose of fixing a mark upon it.

1. To fix a mark or character of infamy, in allusion to the branding of criminals; to stigmatize as infamous; as, to brand a vice with infamy.