Definition of "brother"

It was a joy to snatch some brief respite, and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter X, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

You shall not charge interest to your brother—interest on money or food or anything that is lent out at interest.

1975, New King James Version, Deuteronomy 23:19

[Michael Jackson] went on television and said, “I don't have sex because of my religious beliefs”, and the public believed it. I know brothers was like “get the fuck out of here!”. And white people, “Michael's a special kinda guy!”

1987, Eddie Murphy Raw, spoken by Eddie Murphy

SPIN: Aren't you both as popular with white people as black people?L.L.: Oh, no question. But I've always said, that's why when people say, "L.L., hey, like, on the last album, you sold out," I say, "Yo, can I ask you a question, Mike Tyson sell out?" "No, he's a brother." I say, he's a cross-over artist. He went pop. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the rap audience [...] they have to understand that their music is for all people. Me personally, I don't think it's about being black or white, […]

1991 January, SPIN, volume 6, number 10, page 58

The white cop grilled me. He was tall, but had a stomach like a pregnant woman. The other two were brothers, and they looked like they just didn't wanna be standing there.

2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World/Ballantine Books, page 148

But damn if they knew when to just leave a brother alone and let him sulk in silence.

2013, Gwyneth Bolton, Ready for Love

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

1963, Martin Luther King Jr., (Please provide the book title or journal name)

O, then! To ride upon such glories, Till my time comes nigh, And commune in the city of peaceful slumbers Among my brothers of wind-blown rye.

2016, William Burkholder, The City of My Brothers

And, above all, no animal must ever tyrannise over his own kind. Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers.

1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 1, in Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg

The eighteenth century text, with its antislavery message and its Adamic figuration, calls implicily for the reconciliation of all peoples as "brothers" (not the reprehensible brothers of Joseph but the cocreated brothers of Adam).

1995, Theophus H. Smith, Conjuring Culture, page 89

Oh, my Brothers, five nights ago many of our braves were out upon the buffalo grounds.

1908 June, Grace Kellogg, “A Keeper of the Door”, in National Magazine, volume 28, page 280

In the case of the boy, a certain amount of instruction comes from the male members of the mother's clan, such as how to go after game, how to handle horses, how to dress, how to conduct yourself and what to seek in life. They also teach the boy how to treat domestic animals. Even pets understand kindness, and the clan brothers use that as an example.

2010, Justin B. Richland, Sarah Deer, Introduction to Tribal Legal Studies, page 193

The carriage that the brothers of the Kai clan rode on had travelled a lot these past few days, and the horses that pulled the carriage were exhausted.

2020, Xiao Xiao Ma Jia Hao, Three Kingdoms: Super Hegemon

Seest thou not we are overreached, and that our proposed mode of communicating with our friends without has been disconcerted by this same motley gentleman thou art so fond to brother?

1819, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe