Browl – from Irish breall – in the English of southeast Ireland means a simpleton. In Cumberland and Yorkshire the word means an impudent, rude child, a brat. As an adjective the word means saucy, impertinent; also handsome, clever in Cumberland. The word is the same as Middle English brol, brolle, offspring, child, found in Piers Plowman.

The verb browl, found in Yorkshire, means to scold, to urge a demand in violent or abusive terms. From Yorkshire the English Dialect Dictionary (EDD) has, from Yorkshire, "Going browling about in that ga'te – the man's no hold of himself." Oxford does not record the word.

The word is not related to a word recorded in Ulster, browlt, which is an adjective meaning deformed or bowed in the legs, generally applied to a dog, a pig or a young calf.

Browden is a verb and adjective used in Scotland, Rathlin island off the coast of Antrim, Northumberland and Yorkshire. It means, as a verb, to be fond of, attached to; to be intent, set upon. "O'er browdened o' the warld she was aye," wrote Ross, the Aberdonian poet, in Helenore (1768). A later Scot, the Lanarkshire poet Hamilton (fl 1865), wrote: "Sair browten' on him was her he'rt." The verb can also mean to pet, pamper. The EDD has, from Scotland, 'They browden [or browden up] that lassie o' theirs our muckle." Hence browdent, petted, pampered.

The adjective means conceited, bold, forward, self-willed. In Shetland and Orkney, in England's North Country and in Northumberland, it is applied to a child at the breast: "It's time to wean the bairn, for it's getting browden upon the breast." The EDD says: "Browden is properly a past participle, being the same as Old English brogden, past participle of bregdan, to interweave, to net. From browden (netted) comes the figurative sense 'attached to, fond of'. The verb browden (to be fond of) is a late formation from the past participle."

The colour brown appears in a few interesting phrases. In Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of 1802 we are informed that The Brown Man of the Moors, a subterranean elf, is a fairy of the most malignant order. Milk from the brown cow, a Yorkshire phrase, is rum poured into tea. To play or boil brown is used of broth or soup when rich. To look brown at a person means to look at him or her with indifference. A young wan in one of the poems by the Aberdonian Shirref (fl 1790), complains: "Now he looks at me full brown."

Used of the weather, a brown day means a gloomy, dull one.