I. ˈbras, -aa(ə)-, -ai-, -ȧ- noun
( -es )
Etymology: Middle English bras, from Old English bræs; akin to Old Frisian bress copper, Middle Low German bras metal; all from a prehistoric West Germanic word perhaps borrowed from a southwest Asiatic language; akin to the source of Hebrew & Phoenician barzel iron — more at farrier
1.
a. : a usually yellow alloy of copper with zinc or formerly tin and sometimes small amounts of other metals that is malleable and ductile and harder and stronger than copper ; especially : one consisting essentially of 50 to 95 percent copper and 5 to 50 percent zinc — compare bronze , composition metal , latten , tombac , white brass
b. : an article of brass
finely designed brasses
2.
a. or brasses plural : the brass musical instruments
the strings and brass never really got together during the performance
b. slang Britain : money ; especially : cash
c. : a memorial tablet (as of copper and zinc) usually bearing an inscription and a design or picture and fastened to the floor or against the wall of a church or to a gravestone
a student of late Elizabethan brasses
d. : bright metal fittings and equipment (as on a ship) or metal utensils and ornaments (as in a house)
sailors vigorously polishing the brass
e. : a lining or step for a bearing (as on a railroad-car axle) usually in pairs and of brass, bronze, or gunmetal
f. : empty fired cartridge shells
3. : brazen importunity : impudent assurance : shamelessness
the brass to borrow large sums of money
4. : a moderate yellow that is redder and duller than colonial yellow or quince yellow and redder and deeper than mustard yellow — called also brazen yellow
5.
a. : commissioned military officers ; especially : high-ranking officers of the army or air force — compare braid II 3, brass hat
b. : the higher levels of civil administration or business management
the top brass of the industry
II. adjective
Etymology: Middle English bras, from bras, n.
1. : consisting or made of brass
a brass cannon
2. : of the color of brass
a brass sky
3.
a. : loud and resounding : resonant
rich boozy brass voices — Mollie Panter-Downes
b. : made up of or composed for brass instruments
a brass choir
a brass section
III. noun
( plural brasses also brass )
Etymology: French brasse length of the arms, fathom, from Middle French brace two arms, length of two arms — more at brace
: a unit of length equal to a fathom