brazen

Meanings

Adjective

• Pertaining to, made of, or resembling brass (in color or strength).
• Sounding harsh and loud, like brass cymbals or brass instruments.
• Extremely strong; impenetrable; resolute.
• Shamelessly shocking and offensive; audacious; impudent; barefaced; immodest, unblushing.

Verb

• To turn a brass color.
• Generally followed by out or through: to carry through in a brazen manner; to act boldly despite embarrassment, risk, etc.

Origin

• From Middle English brasen, from Old English bræsen; equivalent to brass + -en (compare golden).
• The word originally meant “of brass”; the figurative verb sense (as in brazen it out) dates from the 1550s (perhaps evoking the sense “face like brass, unmoving and not showing shame”), and the adjective sense “impudent” from the 1570s. Compare bold as brass.