n. In worsted-manuf., the process of uniting the short slivers, as received from the comber, into one continuous rope or sliver, by doubling and running through drawing-webs.n. [Imitation of German brechung.] In philology, the change of one vowel to two before certain consonants, as, in Anglo-Saxon (where the phenomenon abounds), earm for *arm, arm, eorthe for *erthe, earth, etc.