brass

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bɹɑːs/
  • (MLE, also) IPA^(key): /bɹæs/
• (Northern England, Scotland) IPA^(key): /bɹas/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bɹæs/
• Rhymes: -ɑːs, -æs

• Audio (US)

  (file)

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.

brass (usually uncountable, plural brasses)

1. (countable, uncountable) A metallic alloy of copper and zinc used in many industrial and plumbing applications.

   Coordinate term: bronze

   1. A memorial or sepulchral tablet usually made of brass or latten
   2. Fittings, utensils, or other items made of brass
2. (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
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.

   brass:  

5. (military, business or other organizations, uncountable, used as a singular or plural noun, metonymically) High-ranking officers.
   • 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.

   The brass are not going to like this.

   The brass is not going to like this.

6. (uncountable, informal) A brave or foolhardy attitude; impudence.

   Synonym: bronze

   You've got a lot of brass telling me to do that!

7. (slang, dated) Money.
8. Inferior composition.

• “brass”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “brass, noun.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
• Jonathon Green (2024) “brass n.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang

brass (comparative more brass, superlative most brass)

1. Made of brass, of or pertaining to brass.
2. Of the colour of brass.
3. (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, [...]

4. (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.

5. 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

brass (third-person singular simple present brasses, present participle brassing, simple past and past participle brassed)

1. (transitive) To coat with brass.

• brass up

• braze
• brazen
• brazier

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".

brass (usually uncountable, plural brasses)

1. (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.

brass

1. (slang) Brass monkey; cold.

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

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”).

brass (plural brasses)

1. (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.

• David Barthelmy (1997–2024) “Brass”, in Webmineral Mineralogy Database.
• “brass”, in Mindat.org‎, Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, 2000–2024.

• IPA^(key): /prasː/
• Rhymes: -asː

brass n (genitive singular brass, no plural)

1. (music, slang) brass

brass

1. Alternative form of bras

brass n

1. (colloquial) a brass section (in a jazz orchestra)

   Synonyms: mässing, bleckblås

2. (colloquial) hashish (processed form of cannabis)

   Synonym: hasch

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