Look up brayer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
A brayer is a hand-tool used historically in printing and printmaking to break up and "rub out" (spread) ink, before it was "beaten" using inking balls or composition rollers. A brayer consists of a short wooden cylinder with a handle fitted to one end; the other, flat end is used to rub the ink.[1]
- ^ William Savage, Dictionary of the art of printing (London: Longman etc., 1841), p. 91,