'Brown bill' definitions:

Definition of 'Brown bill'

From: GCIDE
  • Brown bill \Brown" bill`\ [Brown + bill cutting tool.] A bill or halberd of the 16th and 17th centuries. See 4th Bill. [1913 Webster]
  • Many time, but for a sallet, my brainpan had been cleft with a brown bill. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: The black, or as it is sometimes called, the brown bill, was a kind of halberd, the cutting part hooked like a woodman's bill, from the back of which projected a spike, and another from the head. --Grose. [1913 Webster]