Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Brass or an alloy resembling brass, hammered thin and formerly used in the manufacture of church vessels.
  • noun A thin sheet of metal, especially of tin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A mixed metal, made of copper and zinc and not practically distinguishable from brass.
  • noun Same as latten-brass.
  • noun A sheet-iron plate prepared for tinning, and ranging in thickness from. 020 to. 016 of an inch.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A kind of brass hammered into thin sheets, formerly much used for making church utensils, as candlesticks, crosses, etc.; -- called also latten brass.
  • noun Sheet tin; iron plate, covered with tin; also, any metal in thin sheets.
  • noun brass in milled sheets, composed of copper and zinc, used by braziers, and for drawing into wire.
  • noun latten polished on both sides ready for use.
  • noun a thinner kind than black latten.
  • noun a mixture of brass and tin.

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

  • noun An alloy of copper and tin, similar to bronze, with a sufficient portion of tin to make it a pewter-like color with yellowish tinge (rather than the brownish-gold color of bronze of higher copper content), once used in thin sheets and for domestic utensils and light-duty tools.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun brass (or a yellow alloy resembling brass) that was hammered into thin sheets; formerly used for church utensils

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English laton, from Old French, from Arabic lātūn, probably from Old Turkic altun, gold; akin to Mongolian altan.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French laton, of uncertain origin.

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Examples

Comments

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  • Ah, this is why mass is traditionally said in Latin.

    May 30, 2008

  • :-D

    June 1, 2008

  • tinned iron

    March 26, 2009