brass

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A class of wind instruments, usually made of metal (such as brass), that use vibrations of the player's lips to produce sound; a band or the section of an orchestra that features such instruments.

   A few measures later, the brass comes in strong!

2. 2
   noun

   High-ranking officers: the brass hats.

   The brass are not going to like this.

3. 3
   noun

   A brave or foolhardy attitude; impudence.

   You've got a lot of brass telling me to do that!

4. 4
   adj

   Impertinent, bold: brazen.

   At the Council board, I hope to charge him with that he cannot answer, and yet I know his face is brass enough.

5. 5
   adj

   Bad, annoying; as wordplay applied especially to brass instruments.

   Grindoff, the miller, 'and the leader of a very brass band of most unpopular performers, with a thorough base accompaniment of at least fifty vices,' was played by Miss Saunders.

6. 6
   adj

   Of inferior composition.

   As Honest Plush Brannon then, Mr. Beery is one of San Francisco's fancier con men and hence more brass than plush

7. 7
   noun

   A prostitute.

   Richard didn't want the man on the corner to go up and fuck one of the brasses.

8. 8
   noun

   a wind instrument that consists of a brass tube (usually of variable length) that is blown by means of a cup-shaped or funnel-shaped mouthpiece

Etymology

From Portuguese braça and Spanish braza, from Old Galician-Portuguese and Old Spanish braça, from Latin brachia, variant of bracchium (“arm, cubit”), from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn, “upper arm”).