Brass

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /bɹɑːs/
• Rhymes: -ɑːs
• US IPA: /bɹæs/
• Rhymes: -æs

From Old English bræs.

Full definition of brass

Noun

1. (uncountable) A metallic alloy of copper and zinc used in many industrial and plumbing applications.
2. (countable, music) A class of wind instruments, usually made of metal (such as brass), that use vibrations of the player's lips to produce sound.
3. Spent shell casings (usually made of brass); the part of the cartridge left over after bullets have been fired.
4. (uncountable) The colour of brass.
5. (uncountable, used as a singular or plural noun, military) High-ranking officers.The brass are not going to like this.The brass is not going to like this.
6. (uncountable, informal) A brave or foolhardy attitude.You've got a lot of brass telling me to do that!
7. (slang, dated) Money.
8. Inferior composition.

Derived terms

Adjective

1. Of the colour of brass.
2. (informal) Impertinent, bold: brazen.
• 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, ...
3. (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, The Training of Seamen, published in The Saturday Review, 3 November 1900, 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.
• Philippine Magazine, volume 6, page 27: unknown dateThe 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.
4. Of inferior composition.
• 1939, As Honest Plush Brannon then, Mr. Beery is one of San Francisco's fancier con men and hence more brass than plush

Related terms

• braze
• brazen
• brazier

By ellipsis

Noun

1. (uncountable, slang) Brass in pocket; money.
2. (countable, slang) A brass nail; a prostitute.

Adjective

adjective

1. (slang) Brass monkey; cold.