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  1. brazen love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. adj. Marked by flagrant and insolent audacity. See Synonyms at shameless.
  2. adj. Having a loud, usually harsh, resonant sound: "sudden brazen clashes of the soldiers' band” ( James Joyce).
  3. adj. Made of brass.
  4. adj. Resembling brass, as in color or strength.
  5. v. To face or undergo with bold self-assurance: brazened out the crisis.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. Made of brass: as, a brazen helmet.
  2. Pertaining to brass; proceeding from brass.
  3. Extremely strong; impenetrable: from brass often serving as a type of strength, impenetrability, and the like: as, “environed with a brazen wall”, Shak., 3 Hen. VI., ii.
  4. Impudent; having a front like brass.
  5. Also spelled brasen.
  6. To behave with insolence or effrontery in regard to: with an indefinite it as object.

Wiktionary

  1. adj. archaic Pertaining to, made of, or resembling brass (in color or strength).
  2. adj. Sounding harsh and loud, like brass cymbals or brass instruments.
  3. adj. archaic Extremely strong; impenetrable.
  4. adj. Shamelessly shocking and offensive; Impudent; barefaced; immodest; or unblushing.
  5. v. transitive To carry through in a brazen manner. Generally used with out or through.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. adj. Pertaining to, made of, or resembling, brass.
  2. adj. Sounding harsh and loud, like resounding brass.
  3. adj. Impudent; immodest; shameless; having a front like brass.
  4. v. To carry through impudently or shamelessly.

WordNet 3.0

  1. adj. made of or resembling brass (as in color or hardness)
  2. v. face with defiance or impudence
  3. adj. unrestrained by convention or propriety

Etymologies

  1. From Middle English brasen, from Old English bræsen ("brazen, of brass"), equivalent to brass +‎ -en (compare golden). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English brasen, made of brass, from Old English bræsen, from bræs, brass. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Washington trying 'to dictate its rules' By Dalila Mahdawi Daily BEIRUT: Hizbullah on Tuesday lambasted what it called brazen American interference in Lebanon's Star staff Monday, June 01, 2009 - Powered by ...”

    WN.com - Articles related to Hudson will return to Chicago to film ABC special

  • “Per the initiative's blueprint, pastors from around the country purported to exercise their freedoms of speech and religion by endorsing political candidates in brazen violation of the current tax code; they then sent those sermons directly to the IRS to tout their civic transgression.”

    The Huffington Post: Stuart Whatley: Pulpit Politicking Returns for 2010 Election Cycle

  • “… The Israeli public relations machinery happily presented the disengagement as the end of the occupation, in brazen disregard of the facts.”

    Matthew Yglesias » What Other Country

  • “The response to the latest setback has been so brazen from the European elite that wants full integration, it proves those involved have passed beyond a point where they might feel the slightest embarrassment about appearing not to be good democrats.”

    Archive 2008-06-01

  • “His entire premiership has become an exercise in brazen dishonesty.”

    Archive 2008-05-01

  • “While neither a student nor faculty favorite - and in brazen defiance of a brusque personal style that rendered him unfit for the job - Dr. Arzt (as he insisted on being called by everyone from students to school board administrators) courageously expanded his activities from mere teaching in teachers union politics.”

    The Tail Section » The Ballad of Doctor Arzt

  • “There was a little problem with getting all the cameras past the guards and metal detectors at the front doors, but (in brazen violation of polling-place rules) Sharpton accompanied the newly hatched voter down the aisle of the school auditorium and stood proudly by for the cameras as she filled in her ballot and deposited it.”

    Pompadour With a Monkey Wrench

  • “Despite arrest and torture, opposition activists remain brazen in their dissent.”

    How To Kill A Country

  • “Even they said that if the North Koreans did something as -- I think the Chinese word was "brazen" -- as conduct an underground test they had to do it.”

    CNN Transcript Oct 16, 2006

  • “Women instinctively hide much of themselves, & are called brazen huzzies if they don’t.”

    Simon & Schuster: Louisa May Alcott

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Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘brazen’.

Comments

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  • sionnach Seanahan: I think it must be a side effect of your choice of reading. Though it does appear quite often preceding the word "hussy", it is by no means used exclusively in that context. "brazen idol" and "brazen it out" seem about equally common, in my experience. Apr 10, 2009

  • yarb Someone behaving brazenly may also be described as having a brass neck. Apr 10, 2009

  • reesetee Yes, madmouth is correct. I remember reading about the "brazen idol" in the Bible tale--but I'd forgotten that meaning until now. Apr 10, 2009

  • seanahan This is an interesting word. I've only heard or read it a few times, and it seems to have been always describing the behavior of a women. Is that generally true, or is that a side effect of my reading habits? Apr 10, 2009

  • chained_bear Really? I hadn't heard that before. That's really interesting. Apr 10, 2009

  • madmouth in the archaic sense, merely "made of bronze", like the brazen calf (or brazen idol) in the Bible. Apr 10, 2009

  • slumry See also brassy Jun 17, 2007

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‘brazen’ has been looked up 5947 times, loved by 14 people, added to 140 lists, commented on 7 times, and has a Scrabble score of 17.