browse n [phonetics unavailable]. Cp OED ~ sb¹ 2 'fodder for cattle, consisting of young shoots and twigs' (1552-1837), DAE n (1721-) for sense 1; EDD sb¹ 1 'brushwood' Do So D Co for sense 2.
   1 Birch shoots, twigs and bark as food for beaver, rabbits, etc.
   [1783] 1792 CARTWRIGHT iii, 25 Those [beavers] which feed upon brouze, particularly on birch, are the most delicious eating of any animal in the known world. 1895 GRENFELL 35 The bark of these [birches] forms their winter food, and is called browse. The beaver cuts off enough for dinner, and takes it into his house. C 67-16 When the beaver's house got lots of browse around it, it's a sign of a hard, cold, snowy winter. 1979 TIZZARD 58 On sunny days such as this the cow would be let out of the stable to eat some brouse—small dogwood and small birch trees my father had hauled from the woods the day before.
   2 Small branches and brushwood gathered as fuel.
   1952 STANSFORD 9 I spent the remainder of the Summer carrying wood or browse on my back, until the fall of the year, when I began cutting wood, and altogether I cut 11,000 sticks of wood. M 68-17 On a good frosty night we would go out around the camp and throw out a lot of browse [on the fire]. M 69-17 [They] could be seen passing our house Winter and Summer pulling browse from Elliston Ridge. This was all they used as firewood until they got their pension when they supplemented this by purchasing a little coal.
   3 Attrib browse partridge: Allen's willow ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus).
   1959 MCATEE 24 ~ Willow Ptarmigan (One that feeds on woody growth. Labr.).
   browse taste: of animals feeding on twigs and bark, with a woody flavour; BROWSY.
   P 127-75 'I don't like that browse taste [of moose or rabbits].'

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