Contextualizebeta

brazen

adj
/ˈbɹeɪ̯zən/

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.

  1. inherited from bræsen — “brazen, of brass”
  2. inherited from brasen

Definitions

  1. Made of brass.

    • 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.
    • 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

    Brass-like in appearance or character; bright, ruddy, hard.

    • The women, stout, strong, brazen-faced creatures, in most cases looked able to thrash any of the partners with whom they consorted.
    • Through the brazen hours that followed high noon, we crept onwards through a tunnel of glittering verdure.

  3. Sounding harsh and loud, like brass cymbals or brass instruments.

    • 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.
    • 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. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Extremely strong

      Extremely strong; impenetrable; resolute.

      • 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.

    2. Shameless or impudent

      Shameless or impudent; shocking or audacious; brash.

      • She was brazen enough to deny stealing the handbag even though she was caught on camera doing so.
      • If one had to lie at all, the brazen lie was better because brazen lies were so outrageous many people failed to question them.

    3. To turn a brass color.

      • [...] the meadows roughen, grow gutteral / with goldenrod, milkweed's late-summer lilac, / cat-tails, the wild lily brazening, / dooryards overflowing in late, rough-headed bloom: [...]

    4. Generally followed by out or through

      Generally followed by out or through: to carry through in a brazen manner; to act boldly despite embarrassment, risk, etc.

      • Sabina brazened it out before Mrs. Wygram; but inwardly she was resolved to be a good deal more circumspect.

The neighborhood

Derived

brazen age, brazen bull, brazenface, brazen-face, brazen-faced, brazenfaced, brazenly, brazenness, brazenry, brazen sea, brazen it out, brazen out, outbrazen

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for brazen. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA