# brass
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /bɹɑːs/
** (MLE, also) IPA: /bɹas/
* (Northern England, Scotland) IPA: /bɹas/
* (General American) IPA: /bɹæs/
* Rhymes: -ɑːs, -æs
* Audio (US):(file)

### Etymology 1

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”).
In the military sense an ellipsis of the brass hats.

#### Noun

brass (usually uncountable, plural brasses)
* (countable, uncountable) A metallic alloy of copper and zinc used in many industrial and plumbing applications.
    Coordinate term: bronze
** A memorial or sepulchral tablet usually made of brass or latten: a monumental brass.
** Fittings, utensils, or other items made of brass.
* (music) A class of wind instruments, usually made of metal (such as brass), that use vibrations of the player's lips to produce sound; the section of an orchestra that features such instruments.
    A few measures later, the brass comes in strong!
* Spent cartridge casings (usually made of brass): the part of the cartridge left over after bullets or shells have been fired.
* (uncountable) The color of brass.
    brass:
* (military, business or other organizations, uncountable, used as a singular or plural noun, metonymically) High-ranking officers: the brass hats.
    Hyponym: top brass
    The brass are not going to like this.
    The brass is not going to like this.
** 2004 November 9, Bungie, Halo 2, spoken by Avery Johnson (David Scully), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: The Armory:I don't want to keep the brass waiting, Chief.
* (uncountable, informal) A brave or foolhardy attitude; impudence.
    Synonym: bronze
    You've got a lot of brass telling me to do that!
* (slang, dated) Money.
* Inferior composition.

##### Derived terms

* admiralty brass
* alpha brass
* antique brass
* beta brass
* bold as brass
* bow-legged wi' brass
* brass ankle
* Brass Ankles
* brass-balled
* brass balls
* brass band
* brassboard
* brassbound
* brass ceiling
* brass choir
* brass-collar Democrat
* brassed off
* brassen
* brass farthing
* brassfounder
* brassfounding
* brass hat
* brassie
* brass in pocket
* brass instrument
* brass instrumentalist
* brassish
* brass it out
* brass-knuckled
* brass knuckles
* brass leaf
* brasslike
* brass monkey
* brass monkeys
* brass nail
* brass-neck
* brass neck
* brass-necked
* brass ovaries
* brass pounder
* brass rat
* brass razoo
* brass ring
* brass rubbing
* brass section
* brass tacks
* brassware
* brasswind
* brasswork
* brassworker
* brassworking
* brassworks
* brassy
* calamine brass
* coal brass
* cold as a witch's tit in a brass bra
* cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey
* Corinthian brass
* double in brass
* firebrass
* get down to brass tacks
* green brass
* high brass
* horse brass
* nonbrass
* not have a brass farthing
* not worth a brass farthing
* part brass rags
* police one's brass
* red brass
* rub one's face with a brass candlestick
* top brass
* where there's muck there's brass
* white brass
* with brass knobs on

##### References

* “brass”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* “brass, noun.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
* “brass n.$^1$”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

#### Adjective

brass (comparative more brass, superlative most brass)
* Made of brass, of or pertaining to brass.
* Of the color of brass.
* (informal) Impertinent, bold: brazen.
** 1869, John Bruce, editor, Calendar of State Papers, domestic series, of the reign of Charles I, 1637-1638, page 147:At the Council board, I hope to charge him with that he cannot answer, and yet I know his face is brass enough.
** 1872, Elsie Leigh Whittlesey, Helen Ethinger: or, Not Exactly Right, page 154:[...] he continued in the same insulting strain. "If you were not quite brass, you would know it is not proper to be making promises you dare not tell of."
** 2011, Paul Christopher, The Templar Conspiracy:It was a show of very large and very brass cojones, [...]
** 1996 May 24, 2:00 am, Sherman Simpson, Want license key for AGENT FOR WINDOWS95, alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent:
    Maybe (probably so), but it's rare someone is brass enough to post a msg for all to see asking for a software key, that the vast majority have paid for in support of the development effort.
** 2000 Aug 18, 2:00 am, David Ryan, strangest bid retraction /illegal lottery NOT, rec.collecting.coins:
    After cornering the dutch auction, the seller was brass enough to send him the whole lot without one.
** 2000 Aug 19, 3:00 am, n4mwd, for RMB, alt.support.anxiety-panic:
    Try to keep in mind that not all of his converts are brass enough to challenge the benzo pushers in this group, [...]
* (slang) Bad, annoying; as wordplay applied especially to brass instruments.
** 1888, Mr. & Mrs. Bancroft on and off the stage: written by themselves, volume 1, page 90:Grindoff, the miller, 'and the leader of a very brass band of most unpopular performers, with a thorough base accompaniment of at least fifty vices,' was played by Miss Saunders.
** 1900 November 3, “The Training of Seamen”, in The Saturday Review, volume 90, number 2349, page 556:I must confess that to me there is something almost pathetic in the sight of a body of bluejackets improving their muscles on the quarter deck by bar-bell exercise, accompanied by a brass — a very brass — band, [...]
** 1908, The Smith Family, published in Punch, March 4 1908, bound in Punch vol. CXXXIV, page 168:
    Mr. REGINALD SMITH, KC, the publisher, followed, but he had hardly begun his very interesting remarks when a procession headed by a very brass band entered Smithfield from the west, and approached the platform.
** 1937, Blair Niles, A journey in time: Peruvian pageant, page 166:There are soldiers, policemen, priests and friars, as well as a motley mass of women, children, babies and dogs, and upon special occasions a very brass band.
** 1929, Philippine Magazine, volume 6, page 27:The padre in my neighborhood — Santa Ana — was having some kind of a fiesta, and had hired a very brass band. This band kept up its martial airs for hours and hours after I got home, with grand finales — or what each time I hoped would be the grand finale, every five minutes.
* Of inferior composition.
** 1939, The New York times film reviews, volume 3:As Honest Plush Brannon then, Mr. Beery is one of San Francisco's fancier con men and hence more brass than plush

##### Translations
#### Verb

brass (third-person singular simple present brasses, present participle brassing, simple past and past participle brassed)
* (transitive) To coat with brass.

##### Derived terms

* brass off
* brass out
* brass up
* brass wool

##### Translations
#### Related terms

* braze
* brazen
* brazier

### Etymology 2

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".

#### Noun

brass (usually uncountable, plural brasses)
* (countable, slang) A prostitute.
** 1996, Will Self, The Sweet Smell of Psychosis, Bloomsbury, published 2011, page 2:Richard didn't want the man on the corner to go up and fuck one of the brasses.

##### Translations
#### Adjective

brass
* (slang) Brass monkey; cold.

#### See also

* althorn
* chalcography
* cornet
* euphonium
* flugelhorn
* French horn
* mellophone
* Muntz metal
* saxhorn
* sousaphone
* trombone
* trumpet
* tuba
* Appendix:Colors

### Etymology 3

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”).

#### Noun

brass (plural brasses)
* (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.

### References

* David Barthelmy (1997–2025) “Brass”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
* “brass”, in Mindat.org‎, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2025.

## Icelandic
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /prasː/
* Rhymes: -asː

### Noun

brass n (genitive singular brass, no plural)
* (music, slang) brass

#### Declension
## Middle English
### Noun

brass
* Alternative form of bras

## Swedish
### Noun

brass n
* (colloquial) a brass section (in a jazz orchestra)
    Synonyms: mässing, bleckblås
* (colloquial) hashish (processed form of cannabis)
    Synonym: hasch

#### Declension
### References

* brass in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* brass in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)