noun

• (military) A kind of traces with hooks and rings, used to drag manoeuvre guns where horses cannot be used.
  "The Bricole, pierced for 60, mounting 44 guns, twenty four and eighteen pounders, ſunk, her captain, officers, and company priſoners."
• (military, historical) An ancient kind of military catapult.
  "And besides here are none of the old-time machines as elsewhere along our front; not a catapult, or bricole, or bible—as some, with wicked facetiousness, have named a certain invention for casting huge stones; nor have we yet heard the report of a cannon, or arquebus, or bombard, although we know the enemy has them in numbers."
• (real tennis) the rebound of a ball from a wall of the court; also, the side stroke or play by which the ball is driven against the wall
  "Let Ill Conſequences be never ſo Remote, ’tis good however, with the Frogs here in the Fable, to have the Reaſon of Things at Hand. The Deſign of many Actions looks one way, and the Event works another ; as a Young Gameſter’s Couzen’d with a Bricole at Tennis."
• (figurative) an indirect action or stroke.