\Brown" bill`\ [Brown + bill cutting tool.]
A bill or halberd of the 16th and 17th centuries. See 4th
{Bill}.
      Many time, but for a sallet, my brainpan had been cleft
      with a brown bill.                       --Shak.
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.