brazen

adj

1. (archaic)Made of brass.

   “Brazen or rather copper swords seem to have been next introduced; these in process of time, workmen learned to harden by the addition of some other metal or mineral, which rendered them almost equal in temper to iron.”

   “And Moses made a brass image of the fiery serpents, and put it up on a pole, where all the people could see it; and when any one was bitten, he could look upon the brazen serpent, and was cured.”

2. (figuratively)Brass-like in appearance or character; bright, ruddy, hard.

   “The women, stout, strong, brazen-faced creatures, in most cases looked able to thrash any of the partners with whom they consorted.”

   “The vegetation was similar to that which covers the lawns of the red Martians of the great waterways, but the trees and birds were unlike anything that I had ever seen upon Mars, and then through the further trees I could see that most un-Martian of all sights—an open sea, its blue waters shimmering beneath the brazen sun.”

   “Through the brazen hours that followed high noon, we crept onwards through a tunnel of glittering verdure.”

3. Sounding harsh and loud, like brass cymbals or brass instruments.

   “And now the Trumpets terribly from far, / With rattling Clangor, rouze the sleepy War. / The Souldiers Shouts succeed the Brazen Sounds, / And Heav'n, from Pole to Pole, the Noise rebounds.”

   “Often a traveller, when the air is quiet, / Will make the night reverberate with this riot / Of brazen sounds, whose singing cadence swells / The harmony of bleating and lambs' bells.”

4. (archaic)Extremely strong; impenetrable; resolute.

   “The giant [Goliath] was thus conquered by the youth [David]; the man-at-arms by the unarmed; the stone of the shepherd pierced the brazen defences of the warrior.”

   “In the autumn, when a small group of us heard him [Frank Wedekind] read from Heracles, his last work, I was amazed at his brazen energy. For two and a half hours without stopping, without once lowering his voice (and what a strong, brazen voice it was), barely pausing for breath for even a moment between acts, bent motionless over the table, he read – half from memory – those verses wrought in brass, looking deep into the eyes of each of his listeners in turn.”

5. Shameless or impudent; shocking or audacious; brash.

   “She was brazen enough to deny stealing the handbag even though she was caught on camera doing so.”

   “He looked at her for a long moment. Slowly, a smile lit in his eyes. "Never a shrew. A fighter and a brazen hussy." / Placing a finger beneath her chin, he tilted her face up. "And, I'd say, you're the only brazen hussy who blushes." / A brazen hussy. She should be offended. But the smile in his eyes, the touch of his finger moving slowly and feather-light from chin to throat and along the sensitive skin of her neck made it impossible to concentrate on rebuke.”

   “If one had to lie at all, the brazen lie was better because brazen lies were so outrageous many people failed to question them.”

   “This brazen action further helps convince Kurita that the Johnston is actually a cruiser, since, obviously, no mere destroyer would dare risk this kind of charge, nor achieve this kind of damage!”

verb

1. (intransitive)To turn a brass color.

   “[...] the meadows roughen, grow gutteral / with goldenrod, milkweed's late-summer lilac, / cat-tails, the wild lily brazening, / dooryards overflowing in late, rough-headed bloom: [...]”

2. (transitive)Generally followed by out or through: to carry through in a brazen manner; to act boldly despite embarrassment, risk, etc.

   “And though the word doth eat up all they can ſay, as Moſes rod did: yet they harden their hearts with Pharaoh, they brazen their brows with him in the text, that ſaid I will not: Nay ſaid the Iſraelites, but we will have a King. [Commentary on Matthew 21:29.]”

   “His impudence is only less than his ignorance, in referring his questioner to [John] Milton, in proof of the scriptural angels being celestial women. That gentleman mildly remarks, "Milton's angels are not Ladies." Instead of blushing, he brazens it out, and replies, "No—but some scriptural angels are Ladies—I believe"—shewing that he is as ignorant of his Bible as of Milton.”

   “Sabina brazened it out before Mrs. Wygram; but inwardly she was resolved to be a good deal more circumspect.”

   “[T]he historically minded modernist poet is uncertain whether there is any excuse at all for the existence of poets. He brazens out the dilemma by making cruel jokes at his own expense—jokes which he expects no one to see or to laugh at if seen.”

   “[...] I've come to rely on a mental technique that I call powering through. [...] It's equivalent to brazening out an awkward social situation—accidentally squeezing the butt of a stranger wearing the same costume as your boyfriend at a Halloween party, say. Powering through or brazening out is almost always what I end up doing, but only after stifling my initial impulse to surrender or sink through the floor.”