brass
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɹɑːs/
ipa: /bɹas/
ipa: /bɹas/
ipa: /bɹæs/
rhymes: -ɑːs
rhymes: -æs
Forms: form: more brass
form: most brass
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”).
In the military sense an ellipsis of the brass hats.
Senses: glosses: Made of brass, of or pertaining to brass.
glosses: Of the color of brass.
examples: text: At the Council board, I hope to charge him with that he cannot answer, and yet I know his face is brass enough.
ref: 1869, John Bruce, editor, Calendar of State Papers, domestic series, of the reign of Charles I, 1637-1638, page 147:
text: [...] 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."
ref: 1872, Elsie Leigh Whittlesey, Helen Ethinger: or, Not Exactly Right, page 154:
text: It was a show of very large and very brass cojones, [...]
ref: 2011, Paul Christopher, The Templar Conspiracy:
text: 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.
ref: 1996 May 24, 2:00 am, Sherman Simpson, Want license key for AGENT FOR WINDOWS95, alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent
text: After cornering the dutch auction, the seller was brass enough to send him the whole lot without one.
ref: 2000 Aug 18, 2:00 am, David Ryan, strangest bid retraction /illegal lottery NOT, rec.collecting.coins
text: Try to keep in mind that not all of his converts are brass enough to challenge the benzo pushers in this group, …
ref: 2000 Aug 19, 3:00 am, n4mwd, for RMB, alt.support.anxiety-panic
glosses: Impertinent, bold: brazen.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1888, Mr. & Mrs. Bancroft on and off the stage: written by themselves, volume 1, page 90:
text: 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, [...]
ref: 1900 November 3, “The Training of Seamen”, in The Saturday Review, volume 90, number 2349, page 556:
text: 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.
ref: 1908, The Smith Family, published in Punch, March 4 1908, bound in Punch vol. CXXXIV, page 168
text: 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.
ref: 1937, Blair Niles, A journey in time: Peruvian pageant, page 166:
text: 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.
ref: 1929, Philippine Magazine, volume 6, page 27:
glosses: Bad, annoying; as wordplay applied especially to brass instruments.
examples: text: As Honest Plush Brannon then, Mr. Beery is one of San Francisco's fancier con men and hence more brass than plush
ref: 1939, The New York times film reviews, volume 3:
glosses: Of inferior composition.