Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A light snaffle or bit of a bridle used in addition to the principal bit, and with a separate rein. Also spelled bradoon.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mil.) The snaffle and rein of a military bridle, which acts independently of the bit, at the pleasure of the rider. It is used in connection with a curb bit, which has its own rein.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A type of snaffle bit, with small rings, usually used on a double bridle in conjunction with a curb bit.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a bit resembling a snaffle bit; used with a separate curb

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French bridon, from bride ("bridle").

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Examples

  • I had the satisfaction of seeing him put his fore feet on the bridle, pull bit and bridoon out of his mouth, and then, with a neigh of exultation, spring into the midst of the herd of mustangs.

    Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Volume 54, No. 337, November, 1843 Various

  • It was the custom, after having unsaddled one's mount, to pass a hasty oil-rag over bit and bridoon and stirrups, and then to fall to upon the grooming of the horse.

    Recollections With Photogravure Portrait of the Author and a number of Original Letters, of which one by George Meredith and another by Robert Louis Stevenson are reproduced in facsimile David Christie Murray

  • 'What the ----' (any competent person who knows barrack life can fill in the blank) 'do you mean by letting your bridoon and stirrup-irons lie rusting here?

    The Making Of A Novelist An Experiment In Autobiography David Christie Murray

  • Back to the horse, to be again assailed by Number Two for not having obeyed the order about the bridoon and stirrup-irons.

    The Making Of A Novelist An Experiment In Autobiography David Christie Murray

  • Hospital, and a heavy-shouldered, black-haired man in shabby white drills stepped out of the throng and seized the flying bridoon-rein, and wrenched the brute down.

    The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

  • The other horses shied, frustrating the efforts of the orderly to catch the flying bridle, and the danger from the huge, towering brown body and dangling iron-shod hoofs was very real, seemed inevitable, when a man in white drill and wearing a Panama hat ran out of the crowd, sprang up and deftly caught the loose bridoon-rein, mastered the frightened beast, and dragged it back into the roadway, in time to avert harm.

    The Dop Doctor Richard Dehan 1897

  • Ostriches roam about this camp, eating empty soda-water bottles and any bridoon bits they can find.

    In the Ranks of the C.I.V. Erskine Childers 1896

  • You put a bridoon on one horse, and, if you are luxurious, a blanket and surcingle to sit on, lead the other, and form up in a line; then 'file right' is the order, and you march off to the watering place, wearing any sort of costume you please.

    In the Ranks of the C.I.V. Erskine Childers 1896

  • With increased practice, comprehension of the management of the bit in military riding would gradually increase both with teacher and pupils, and work with the reins in both hands be usefully employed to facilitate the transition from the bridoon to the bit and counteract the possible evils of riding on the bit alone.

    Cavalry in Future Wars Friedrich von Bernhardi 1889

  • More stress requires to be laid on riding with one hand only and with arms (_i. e._, drawn swords), for the bit, with or without a feeling on the bridoon, is in War the only practical method of direction; and the use of his weapons when mounted must have become second nature to the man if they are not to be a constant impediment to him in the control of his horse.

    Cavalry in Future Wars Friedrich von Bernhardi 1889

Comments

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  • "the snaffle rein of a military bridle, which acts independent of the bit and curb." (citation in Historical Military Terms list description)

    October 10, 2008