Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A style of theatrical makeup in which a white person colours the face brown in order to represent somebody of another race.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

brown +‎ face

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Examples

  • The principal Indian roles are played by white actors in brownface, including a scowling Jeff Chandler as Cochise.

    2009 August : Scrubbles.net 2009

  • The principal Indian roles are played by white actors in brownface, including a scowling Jeff Chandler as Cochise.

    Weekly Mishmash: July 25-August 1 : Scrubbles.net 2009

  • There, he falls in love with a half-Tahitian beauty (Williams, in "brownface") and decides to adopt the "pagan" lifestyle of Tahiti.

    Epinions Recent Content for Home 2010

  • Playing the lead "brownface" role, she stole the show with a new song, a lurching mid-tempo ballad by songwriters Jean Lennox and Harry O. Sutton.

    Expecting Rain 2009

  • And he suspects the show misfired with its cartoonish tribe of Amazon Indians and a Middle Eastern character played by a white actor in brownface.

    Fox's 'Running Wilde' Runs Amok 2010

  • And he suspects the show misfired with its cartoonish tribe of Amazon Indians and a Middle Eastern character played by a white actor in brownface.

    Fox's 'Running Wilde' Runs Amok 2010

  • Anton Yelchin is cool with the whole ring/super powers thing, but what he really wants is to wear brownface and yell “Heart!”

    REALLY, THIS PUSSY AGAIN? 2009

  • I mean, the disturbing number of people who seem to think putting these kids in brownface or yellowface is okay, is proof enough that there's a huge problem here.

    Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider 2009

  • We talk about that in terms of "West Side Story," where everybody's identified how Natalie Wood was in brownface playing a Puerto Rican.

    CNN.com 2009

  • But the whole film is stuffed full of delights: Heston in brownface exclaiming about an explosion on the border,

    San Francisco Metblogs 2009

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