brash

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They came in as a brash, aggressive offense that often put defenses on their heels, but for the first half against the Pittsburgh Steelers they suddenly morphed into a power team trying to make a slow running back their featured player.

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Definitions (27)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. adjective Hasty and unthinking; impetuous.
  2. adjective Rash.
  3. adjective Lacking in sensitivity or tact.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (17)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • Natasha watched Eros arm himself; brash, arrogant, though still in his teens, the demi-god wore a silver doublet with angel-wing sleeves over green hose, to which Eros added a back-and-breast, and an armored codpiece, just in case. —  FSFDec2003
  • This was a little brash, as the youngster understood immediately, he continued more contritely, "I agree they'd have an argument but I think we hedged well enough so that with Wendall gone the basic deal has changed." —  Mistress of Justice
  • He was loud-laughing and brash, and appeared to embarrass the girl a good deal. —  Spotted Hemlock - Gladys Mitchell - Bradley 31: 1958
  • She's opinionated, brash, and has a history of not getting along with teammates. —  Sports Central | Articles and Columns
  • And it showed again that Rodney was anything but the brash, arrogant and selfish man he seemed to be at first glance. —  Wraithbait
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same contextWord Family

brash:   brashest
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (10)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Possibly imitative (influenced by rash1) or from brash, attack.
  2. Perhaps an alteration of French brèche, breach in a wall, from Italian breccia; see breccia.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (8)

  1. The several words spelled brash are chiefly of dial. origin and of modern appearance, and apparently in part of modern formation. The senses overlap, and make the separation of the words uncertain. Brash is apparently a popular formation on break, brack, with the terminal form of bash, dash, crash, words of similar sense; cf. brash, n., and brash, a. In the sense of ‘assault, attack,’ it is also found in early modern Scots as bresche, apparently a variant of brush, v.; cf. Middle Low German braschen, breschen, intransitive, crack, make a loud noise, roar, boast, brassen, make a loud noise, = Norwegian braska, make a loud noise, roar, boast, = Swedish braska, rustle, bustle, boast, = Danish braske, boast, brag. See brastle.
  2. from brash, v.; cf. Middle Low German brasch, a crack, crash, Danish brask, a boast, Old Danish also a crash, loud noise, a boast. In sense 4, cf. dial. brauch. The word in this sense cannot be taken, as supposed, from modern F. brèche (pron. nearly brāsh), breccia; moreover, breccia is a different thing from brash: see breccia, breach.
  3. Hardly connected, as supposed, with Icelandic breysk-leikr, weakness of body, from breyskr, weak, infirm (in a moral sense), properly brittle (see brash), but perhaps a particular use of brash, n.
  4. Cf. English dial. (North.) brassish, brittle; prob., with some alteration of form (perhaps by confusion with brash, n., 4), from Icelandic breyskr, modern also breiskr, brittle (cf. brash); perhaps ult. connected with break and brickle.
  5. Perhaps of Celtic origin: cf. Gaelic bras, Irish bras, brasach, hasty, impetuous, keen, active, nimble; cf. also Dutch barsch, later G. barsch = Danish Swedish barsk, harsh, impetuous. Not connected with the equivalent rash.
  6. apparently from brash, a.; but perhaps a particular use of brash, n.
  7. apparently from brash, a.; but perhaps a particular use of brash, v.
  8. apparently a particular use of brash.
 

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/bræʃ/
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