brass
UK /bɹɑːs/ · US /bɹæs/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms brasses brassing brassed
- noun A memorial or sepulchral tablet usually made of brass or latten: a monumental brass.
- noun Fittings, utensils, or other items made of brass.
- noun (music) A class of wind instruments, usually made of metal (such as brass), that use vibrations of the player's lips to produce sound; a band or the section of an orchestra that features such instruments. “A few measures later, the brass comes in strong!”
- noun Spent cartridge casings (usually made of brass): the part of the cartridge left over after bullets or shells have been fired.
- noun (uncountable) The color of brass (etymology 1, noun sense 1).
- noun (military, business or other organizations, uncountable, used as a singular or plural noun, metonymic) High-ranking officers: the brass hats. “The brass are not going to like this.”
- noun (uncountable, informal) A brave or foolhardy attitude; impudence. “You've got a lot of brass telling me to do that!”
- noun (slang, dated, Northern England) Money.
- adjective Made of brass, of or pertaining to brass.
- adjective Of the color of brass.
- adjective (informal) Impertinent, bold: brazen.
- adjective (slang) Bad, annoying; as wordplay applied especially to brass instruments.
- adjective Of inferior composition.
- verb (transitive) To coat with brass.
- noun (countable, slang) A prostitute.
- adjective (slang) Brass monkey; cold.
- noun (historical, obsolete) Synonym of brace, a traditional unit of measure equivalent to a fathom (6 feet) or about 1.6 m, especially as the Spanish braza and Portuguese braça, also French brasse.
Synonyms
bronze brace brass instrument administration governance governing body establishment organization organisation boldness nerve face cheek brass section memorial tablet plaque
Etymology
From Middle English bras, bres, from Old English bræs (“brass, bronze”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps representing a backformation from Proto-Germanic *brasnaz (“brazen”), from or related to *brasō (“fire, pyre”). Compare Old Norse and Icelandic bras (“solder”), Icelandic brasa (“to harden in the fire”), Swedish brasa (“a small controlled fire”), Danish brase (“to fry”); French braser ("to solder"; > English braise) from the same Germanic root. Compare also Middle Dutch braspenninc ("a silver coin", literally, "silver-penny"; > Dutch braspenning), Old Frisian bress (“copper”), Middle Low German bras (“metal, ore”) and برنج (branj, “brass”)
In the military sense an ellipsis of the brass hats.
By ellipsis from brass nail, in turn from "nail[ing]" (fig.) and "brass blonde" (see "brazen"); and also shortened from Cockney Rhyming slang brass flute for "prostitute".
From Portuguese braça and Spanish braza, from Old Galician-Portuguese and Old Spanish braça, from Latin brachia, variant of bracchium (“arm, cubit”), from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn, “upper arm”).
Webster’s 1913
- noun An alloy (usually yellow) of copper and zinc, in variable proportion, but often containing two parts of copper to one part of zinc. It sometimes contains tin, and rarely other metals.
- noun A journal bearing, so called because frequently made of brass.
Etymology [OE. bras, bres, AS. bræs; akin to Icel. bras cement, solder, brasa to harden by fire, and to E. braze, brazen. Cf. 1st & 2d Braze.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “brass”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details