Word: brazen Part of Speech: adj Etymology: From Middle English brasen, from Old English bræsen (“brazen, of brass”); equivalent to brass + -en (compare golden, wooden, etc.). The word originally meant “of brass”; the figurative verb sense (as in brazen it out (“face impudently”)) dates from the 1550s (perhaps evoking the sense “face like brass, unmoving and not showing shame”), and the adjective sense “impudent” from the 1570s. Compare brass neck, bold as brass. Pronunciation: /ˈbɹeɪ̯zən/, [ˈbɹeɪzn̩], /ˈbɹæ̝ɪ̯zən/, [ˈbɹæ̝ɪzn̩] 1. Made of brass. Labels: archaic Example: Brazen or rather copper swords seem to have been next introduced; these in process of time, workmen learned to harden by the addition of some other metal or mineral, which rendered them almost equal in temper to iron. Example: And Moses made a brass image of the fiery serpents, and put it up on a pole, where all the people could see it; and when any one was bitten, he could look upon the brazen serpent, and was cured. 2. Brass-like in appearance or character; bright, ruddy, hard. Labels: figuratively Example: The women, stout, strong, brazen-faced creatures, in most cases looked able to thrash any of the partners with whom they consorted. Example: The vegetation was similar to that which covers the lawns of the red Martians of the great waterways, but the trees and birds were unlike anything that I had ever seen upon Mars, and then through the further trees I could see that most un-Martian of all sights—an open sea, its blue waters shimmering beneath the brazen sun. 3. Sounding harsh and loud, like brass cymbals or brass instruments. Example: And now the Trumpets terribly from far, / With rattling Clangor, rouze the sleepy War. / The Souldiers Shouts succeed the Brazen Sounds, / And Heav'n, from Pole to Pole, the Noise rebounds. Example: Often a traveller, when the air is quiet, / Will make the night reverberate with this riot / Of brazen sounds, whose singing cadence swells / The harmony of bleating and lambs' bells. 4. Extremely strong; impenetrable; resolute. Labels: archaic Example: The giant [Goliath] was thus conquered by the youth [David]; the man-at-arms by the unarmed; the stone of the shepherd pierced the brazen defences of the warrior. Example: In the autumn, when a small group of us heard him [Frank Wedekind] read from Heracles, his last work, I was amazed at his brazen energy. For two and a half hours without stopping, without once lowering his voice (and what a strong, brazen voice it was), barely pausing for breath for even a moment between acts, bent motionless over the table, he read – half from memory – those verses wrought in brass, looking deep into the eyes of each of his listeners in turn. 5. Shameless or impudent; shocking or audacious; brash. Example: She was brazen enough to deny stealing the handbag even though she was caught on camera doing so. Example: He looked at her for a long moment. Slowly, a smile lit in his eyes. "Never a shrew. A fighter and a brazen hussy." / Placing a finger beneath her chin, he tilted her face up. "And, I'd say, you're the only brazen hussy who blushes." / A brazen hussy. She should be offended. But the smile in his eyes, the touch of his finger moving slowly and feather-light from chin to throat and along the sensitive skin of her neck made it impossible to concentrate on rebuke.