Forms: 1–2 bræs, 2 bres, 3 breas, 3–5 bras(e, 4–7 brasse, 3– brass. [OE. bræs, of unknown origin: not found elsewhere. (It has been compared with OSw. brasa fire, brasa to flame, Da. brase to roast; but no connection has been traced. The alleged ON. bras ‘solder’ is a figment.)]
1. a. Historically: The general name for all alloys of copper with tin or zinc (and occasionally other base metals). To distinguish alloys of copper and tin, the name BRONZE has recently been adopted (Johnson 1755–73 explains the new word bronze as ‘brass’). Hence
b. In strict modern use, as distinguished from ‘bronze’: A yellow-colored alloy of copper and zinc, usually containing about a third of its weight of zinc.
The OE. bræs was, usually at least, an alloy of copper and tin (= BRONZE); in much later times the alloy of copper and zinc came gradually into general use, and became the ordinary ‘brass’ of England; though in reference to ancient times, and esp. to the nations of antiquity, ‘brass’ still meant the older alloy. When works of Greek and Roman antiquity in ‘brass’ began to be critically examined, and their material discriminated, the Italian word for ‘brass’ (Bronzo, bronze) came into use to distinguish this ‘ancient brass’ from the current alloy. Corinthian brass: a reputed alloy of gold, silver and copper.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram., vi. 15. Aes, bræs oððe ar.
c. 1150. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 550. Æs, bres.
c. 1200. Ormin, 17417. He shollde melltenn brass.
a. 1225. Juliana, 30. Brune of wallinde breas.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 3898. Moyses ðor made a wirme of bras.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 5903. Þe king hert wex herd as bras.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 67. Men take glasses, bras and other suche thinges for as moche gold.
1552–3. Inv. Ch. Goods Stafford, 12. On chales of silver … ij of brasse, a sensor of brasse, ij candelstikes of brase.
1623. B. Jonson, in Shaks. C. Praise, 141. O, could he but have drawne his Wit … in Brasse.
1718. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., II. liii. 74. Inscriptions on … tables of brass.
1781. Thompson, in Phil. Trans., LXXI. 327. Brass in a very fine powder, commonly called brass dust.
1865. Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, iv. 34. A compound like Corinthian brass into which many pure ores have been fused.
c. Taken as a type of hardness, imperishableness, insensibility, etc.
1388. Wyclif, Job vi. 12. Nethir my strengthe is the strengthe of stoonus, nether my fleisch is of bras.
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonn., cxx. Unless my nerves were brass or hammer’d steel. Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., IV. ii. 45. Mens euill manners liue in Brasse, their Vertues We write in Water.
† d. transf. Copper. Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Deut. viii. 9. Of the hillis of it ben doluen metallys of brasse [1535 Coverdale and 1611 thou mayest dig brass(e].
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. II. iv. 177. Mines of Iron and Brass.
e. A wide-spread miner’s name for iron pyrites in coal. Cf. BRAZIL2.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 271/1. Detached masses of pyrites … are called ‘brasses’ by the colliers.
f. in Organ-building. (See quot.)
1852. Seidel, Organ, 167. A great portion of the pipes are often composed of brass. This is nothing but a mixture or composition of lead and tin. Ibid. Good brass consists either of fifteen parts pewter and one part lead, or of fourteen parts pewter and two parts lead.
2. Used elliptically for various things made of brass: esp.
a. A sepulchral tablet of brass (or latten), bearing a figure or inscription, laid down on the floor or set up against the wall of a church.
1613. MS. Acc. St. John’s Hosp., Canterb. Payd for fasting of the brass of the graves in the chaunsells vd.
1654. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 317. The soldiers had lately knocked off most of the brasses from the grave-stones.
1732. De Foe, Tour Gt. Brit. (1769), II. 279. Merchants, as they are called on the Brasses over their Monuments.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), II. IV. ix. 456. A small mural brass.
1861. Sat. Rev., 22 June. Once a zealous ‘rubber,’ on asking whether there were any ‘brasses’ in a church, was guided, in answer, to the brass handles of the pew doors.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., x.
b. A bearing or block for a shaft.
1731. Beighton, in Phil. Trans., XXXVII. 5. The Wheel lies with its two Gudgeons … upon two Brasses.
1790. Specif. J. Wood’s Patent, No. 1744. The brasses or friction rollers for the necks and bearing of the crank to work in.
1823. R. Buchanan, Millwork, 264. Produce unequal wear on the gudgeons and brasses.
c. A brazen vessel: cf. copper. (rare).
1810. Southey, Kehama, XVII. i. Huge as a Ship that travels the main sea Is that capacious brass.
d. Musical instruments of brass.
[1382. Wyclif, 1 Cor. xiii. 1. As bras sownnynge or a symbal tynkynge.]
1832. L. Hunt, Poems, 208. Ev’n the bees lag at the summoning brass.
1885. Truth, 11 June, 928/1. There are not enough of them [fiddles]; the brass blows them all to pieces.
3. Money.
† a. Copper or bronze coin; also fig. Obs.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. III. 189. Beere heor bras on þi Bac to Caleys to sulle. [Perhaps belongs here.]
1526. Tindale, Matt. x. 9. Posses not golde, nor silver, nor brasse yn youre gerdels.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., IV. iv. 19. Luxurious Mountaine Goat, offer’st me Brasse?
1775. Crabbe, Inebriety, Where canvass purse displays the brass enroll’d.
b. Money in general, cash. slang or dial.
1597–8. Bp. Hall, Satires, I. iii. 58 (D.). Shame that the muses should be bought and sold For every peasant’s brass.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 486. Obærati … pressed with the heauy burden of brasse, i. debt.
1794. Burns, ‘What can a young lassie.’ His auld brass will buy me a new pan.
1811. Byron, Hints fr. Hor., 548. Who ne’er despises books that bring him brass.
1848. C. Brontë, Jane Eyre (1857), 349. ‘You’ve like no house, nor no brass, I guess?’
1871. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., III. 27. You wouldn’t have gone near him … if it hadn’t been for his brass.
4. fig. Taken as a type of insensibility to shame: hence, Effrontery, impudence, unblushingness.
[1588. Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 395. Can any face of brasse hold longer out?]
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. x. 395. His face is of brasse, which may be said either ever or never to blush.
1682. Dryden, Satyr to Muse, 236. And like the Sweed is very Rich in Brass.
a. 1734. North, Exam., III. viii. ¶ 17. The Author hath the Brass to add, etc.
1780. Mad. D’Arblay, Diary & Lett., I. 318. I entered the room without astonishing the company by my brass.
1853. T. T. Lynch, Self-Improvement, 45. An empty, vaunting person, who has brass enough to face the world.
II. Attrib. and Comb.
5. simple attrib.: (Made) of brass, brazen.
(In former times sometimes united with hyphen.)
1408. E. E. Wills (1882), 15. A bras pot. Ibid. (1420), 46. 1 petit brase morter.
1475. Bk. Noblesse, 84. Alle othir golde, silver, and brasse money.
1650. R. Stapylton, Strada’s Low-C. Warres, X. 3. 15 great Brasse-Cannon.
1652. Proc. Parliament, No. 34. 2081. 5 small brasse guns.
1710. Hearne, Coll., II. 363. The Antients us’d Brass Arms before Iron ones.
1720. Stow’s Surv. (ed. Strype, 1754), II. V. xvii. 363/2. We recieve … also Whalebone Train Oil, Brass Battery.
1724. Swift, Drapier’s Lett., Wks. 1755, V. II. 147. Whoever received or uttered brass coin.
1776. Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg., 36/1. Brass field pieces.
1876. Humphrey, Coin Coll. Man., xvi. 196. Not worth a brass button.
6. General comb.: a. objective or obj. genitive, as brass-caster, -finisher, -founder, -foundry; -finishing adj.; b. instrumental, as brass-armed, -bound, -mounted, -shapen; c. similative, as brass-bold, -colo(u)red, brass-like; d. parasynthetic, as brass-browed, -footed, -fronted, handled, -headed († -head), -hilted, -plated, -scaly, -tipped, etc., etc.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 45. A *brasse bold merchaunt in causes dangerus hardye.
1630. Prynne, Anti-Armin., 238. Dare any *brasse-browed Arminian be so shamelessly absurd.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XXIV. 607. The *brass-cheek’d helmet.
1851. Ruskin, King Gold. River, i. A very large nose, slightly *brass-coloured.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. ii. V. i. (1651), 544. She taught him how to tame the fire-breathing *brass-feeted Bulls.
1879. Melbourne Argus, 24 Dec., 2/1. The same rates are paid in the fine *brassfinishing shops.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 486. A third society … of *brasse-founders.
1716. Lond. Gaz., No. 5450/3. A *Brass Foundery is … building at Woolwich.
1613. Heywood, Brazen Age, II. ii. Wks. 1874, III. 212. And these our *brasse-head buls.
1692. Lond. Gaz., No. 2804/4. A *Brass-hilted Sword.
1598. Chapman, Iliad, VIII. 36. His *brass-hooved winged horse.
1877. A. B. Edwards, Up Nile, xix. 536. An antique *brass-mounted firelock.
1591. Greene, Maiden’s Dr., Wks. 1881–3, XIV. 306. *Brass-renting Goddesse, she cannot lament.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. xi. 11. His long *bras-scaly back.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, ii. (Arb.), 67. Brandisht tergats, and *brasshapen harneise.
1862. Mayhew, Crim. Prisons, 32. Gaugers with their *brass-tipped rules.
7. Special comb. and phrases: brass band, a band of musicians with wind instruments of brass; brass bason, a basin of brass, also fig. a barber or surgeon barber; † brasscut, a copperplate engraving (cf. woodcut); brass edge (see quot.); † brass-face, an impudent person; brass farthing, an emphatic equivalent of farthing in depreciatory expressions; brass-foil, brass-latten, Dutch leaf or Dutch gold made by beating out plates of brass very thin; † brass-leef = brass-cut; brass lump, a miners’ term for massive iron pyrites or marcasite; † brass-plate, copper-plate for engraving; brass plate, a plate of brass, bearing an inscription, e.g., on or at a door or gate, bearing the resident’s name; also a monumental ‘brass’ (2 a); brass rule, a strip of brass, type-high, used to separate lines or columns of type; brass-smith, an artificer in brass; brass-work, artificers’ work in brass; pl. an establishment for making or working in brass; brass-worker, an artificer in brass.
1861. N. Brit. Rev., Nov., 392. The gentlemen of the *Brass Band.
1871. M. Collins, Mrq. & Merch., II. vi. 170. The brass band plays horribly.
1599. Bp. Hall, Sat., IV. i. 162. Esculape! how rife is phisicke made When ech *brasse-basen can profess the trade.
1662. J. Bargrave, Pope Alex. VII. (1867), 70. With all the scenes in excellent *brasscutts.
1884. F. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 36. *Brass Edge in common watch movements, [is] a brass rim fitted round the pillar plate.
1647. Lilly, Chr. Astrol., cvii. 538. An impudent fellow, a *Brasse-face, yet of good understanding.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 33. As bare and beggarly as if he had not one *brasse farthing.
1880. Besant & Rice, Seamy Side, x. 78. ‘I care not one brass farthing.’
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 53. A thin piece of *Brass-latin.
1654. Gayton, Festiv. Notes, III. i. 66. In the book … a great Cut or *Brasse leafe.
1674. Phil. Trans., IX. 222. Pieces of the ordinary Fire-stones or Marcasite of the Coal-pits which here we call *Brass-lumps.
1757. Walker, in Phil. Trans., L. 146. It is … exceeding ponderous, and of a shining yellow colour, and is called by the miners brass lumps.
1655. Marq. Worcester, Cent. Inv., § 100. All … of these Inventions … shall be Printed by *Brass-plates.
1860. Mrs. Gaskell, Right at Last, 40. I saw a brass-plate, with Doctor James Brown upon it.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. iv. Has he not seen the Scottish *Brasssmith’s Idea?
1689. Lond. Gaz., No. 2509/4. Black Japan Gilt *Brass-work.
1805. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 378/1. The *brass work being over-heated.
1723. Lond. Gaz., No. 6171/10. Benjamin Gibbons … *Brassworker.
1664. Phil. Trans., I. 25. In the Brass-works of Tivoli.
1761. Wesley, Jrnl., 13 Sept. Employed in the neighbouring brass-works.
