| 释义 |
▪ I. brass, n.|brɑːs, -æ-|
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 connexion has been traced. The alleged ON. bras ‘solder’ is a figment.)]
I.
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 subsequently been adopted (Johnson 1755–73 explains the new word bronze as ‘brass’). Hence b. In strict modern use, as distinguished from ‘bronze’: A yellow-coloured 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.
c1000ælfric Gram. vi. 15 Aes, bræs oððe ar. c1150Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 550 æs, bres. c1200Ormin 17417 He shollde melltenn brass. a1225Juliana 30 Brune of wallinde breas. c1250Gen. & Ex. 3898 Moyses ðor made a wirme of bras. a1300Cursor M. 5903 Þe king hert wex herd as bras. 1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 67 Men take glasses, bras and other suche thinges for as moche gold. 1552–3Inv. Ch. Goods Stafford 12 On chales of silver..ij of brasse, a sensor of brasse, ij candelstikes of brase. 1623B. Jonson in Shaks. C. Praise 141 O, could he but have drawne his Wit..in Brasse. 1718Lady M. W. Montague Lett. II. liii. 74 Inscriptions on..tables of brass. 1781Thompson in Phil. Trans. LXXI. 327 Brass in a very fine powder, commonly called brass dust. 1865Baring-Gould Werewolves 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.
1388Wyclif Job vi. 12 Nethir my strengthe is the strengthe of stoonus, nether my fleisch is of bras. c1600Shakes. Sonn. cxx, Unless my nerves were brass or hammer'd steel. 1613― Hen. VIII, iv. ii. 45 Mens euill manners liue in Brasse, their Vertues We write in Water.
†d. transf. Copper. Obs.
1382Wyclif Deut. viii. 9 Of the hillis of it ben doluen metallys of brasse [1535 Coverdale and 1611thou mayest dig brass(e]. 1617Moryson Itin. i. ii. iv. 177 Mines of Iron and Brass.
e. A wide-spread miner's name for iron pyrites in coal. Cf. brazil2.
1829S. Glover Hist. Derby I. v. 234 Many of the coal-seams..have considerable quantities of brasses or drosses in them, which are lumps of iron pyrites. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 271/1 Detached masses of pyrites..are called ‘brasses’ by the colliers.
f. in Organ-building. (See quot.)
1852Seidel 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.
1613MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp., Canterb., Payd for fasting of the brass of the graves in the chaunsells vd. 1654Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 317 The soldiers had lately knocked off most of the brasses from the grave-stones. 1732De Foe Tour Gt. Brit. (1769) II. 279 Merchants, as they are called on the Brasses over their Monuments. 1851D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) II. iv. ix. 456 A small mural brass. 1861Sat. 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. 1874Boutell Arms & Arm. x.
b. A bearing or block for a shaft.
1731H. Beighton in Phil. Trans. XXXVII. 5 The Wheel lies with its two Gudgeons..upon two Brasses. 1790Specif. J. Wood's Patent No. 1744 The brasses or friction rollers for the necks and bearing of the crank to work in. 1823R. Buchanan Millwork 264 Produce unequal wear on the gudgeons and brasses.
c. A brazen vessel: cf. copper. (rare.)
1810Southey Kehama xvii. i, Huge as a Ship that travels the main sea Is that capacious brass.
d. Musical instruments of brass.
[1382Wyclif 1 Cor. xiii. 1 As bras sownnynge or a symbal tynkynge.] 1832L. Hunt Poems 208 Ev'n the bees lag at the summoning brass. 1876G. B. Shaw How to become Mus. Critic (1960) 10 A good deal of piccolo, drum, and cymbal, relieved by an effective melody for the brass. 1885Truth 11 June 928/1 There are not enough of them [fiddles]; the brass blows them all to pieces. 1926Whiteman & McBride Jazz ix. 195 Musicians recognize four general classes of instruments in speaking of the orchestra—strings, wood winds, brasses, and the battery of traps.
e. slang (orig. U.S.). Senior officers in the armed forces (in allusion to their brass or gold insignia); ‘brass-hats’ collectively; esp. the big (or top) brass. Also transf. and attrib.
1899Boston Herald 26 July 4/8 It was not a big brass general that came; But a man in khaki kit. 1945Life 2 July 13/3, I don't suppose that Congress and the Big Brass would ever agree to that. 1949Bulletin (Philad.) 14 Sept. 4/1 The top police brass spreads out a hot carpet for the local cops. 1951E. Ambler Judgment on Deltchev xvii. 204 Some of his revelations..were deeply shocking to the Anglo-American brass. 1951Economist 15 Dec. 1463/1 The ‘high brass’ of American business was also well represented at the meeting. 1952Newsweek 19 May 21 Top Pentagon brass are taking the aviation-gasoline restriction seriously. 1959A. C. Clarke Across Sea of Stars 123 The general was unaware of his faux pas. The assembled brass thought for a while.
f. Typogr. A brass block or die, esp. one used for a design or lettering on the cover of a book. Often with defining word.
1930M. Sadleir Evol. Publishers' Binding Styles 1770– 1900 90 Such lettering was printed from a specially cut binding-brass... This brass was sometimes discarded and plain type lettering employed. 1951S. Jennett Making of Books 175 The brass from which the lettering and decoration is blocked on a modern book.
g. slang. = brass nail.
1934[see sense 7]. 1952N. Streatfeild Aunt Clara 161 If Mr. Willis thought she was a brass, he had got another think coming... If you looked at those brown eyes you could see she was innocent as a baby. 1958F. Norman Bang to Rights 10 His old woman who was a brass on the game.
3. Money.
†a. Copper or bronze coin; also fig. Obs.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 189 Beere heor bras on þi Bac to Caleys to sulle. [Perhaps belongs here.]
1526Tindale Matt. x. 9 Posses not golde, nor silver, nor brasse yn youre gerdels. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iv. iv. 19 Luxurious Mountaine Goat, offer'st me Brasse? 1775Crabbe Inebriety, Where canvass purse displays the brass enroll'd.
b. Money in general, cash. slang or dial.
1597–8Bp. Hall Satires i. iii. 58 (D.) Shame that the muses should be bought and sold For every peasant's brass. 1601Holland Pliny II. 486 Obærati..pressed with the heauy burden of brasse, i. debt. 1794Burns ‘What can a young lassie’, His auld brass will buy me a new pan. 1811Byron Hints fr. Hor. 548 Who ne'er despises books that bring him brass. 1848C. Brontë J. Eyre (1857) 349 ‘You've like no house, nor no brass, I guess?’ 1871E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. III. 27 You wouldn't have gone near him..if it hadn't been for his brass.
4. a. fig. Taken as a type of insensibility to shame: hence, Effrontery, impudence, unblushingness.
[1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 395 Can any face of brasse hold longer out?] 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. x. 395 His face is of brasse, which may be said either ever or never to blush. 1682Dryden Satyr to Muse 236 And like the Sweed is very Rich in Brass. a1734North Exam. iii. viii. ⁋17 The Author hath the Brass to add, etc. 1780F. Burney Diary & Lett. I. 318, I entered the room without astonishing the company by my brass. 1853Lynch Self-Impr. 45 An empty, vaunting person, who has brass enough to face the world.
b. Colloq. phr. as bold as brass: very bold(ly) or impudent(ly); brazen-faced(ly).
1789G. Parker Life's Painter 162 He died damn'd hard and as bold as brass. An expression commonly used among the vulgar after returning from an execution. 1849Lytton Caxtons I. i. iv. 27 Master Sisty (coming out of the house as bold as brass) continued rapidly [etc.]. 1922S. Weyman Ovington's Bank xvii. 188 Seeing as he hung back I up to him bold as brass.
II. attrib. and Comb.
5. a. simple attrib.: (Made) of brass, brazen.
(In former times sometimes united with hyphen.)
1408E.E. Wills (1882) 15 A bras pot. 1420Ibid. 46, 1 petit brase morter. 1475Bk. Noblesse 84 Alle othir golde, silver, and brasse money. 1650R. Stapylton Strada's Low-C. Warres x. 3, 15 great Brasse-Cannon. 1652Proc. Parliament No. 34. 2081, 5 small brasse guns. 1710Hearne Coll. II. 363 The Antients us'd Brass Arms before Iron ones. 1720Stow's Surv. (ed. Strype 1754) II. v. xvii. 363/2 We recieve..also Whalebone Train Oil, Brass Battery. 1724Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 147 Whoever received or uttered brass coin. 1776Hist. Europe in Ann. Reg. 36/1 Brass field pieces. 1876H. N. Humphreys Coin Coll. Man. xvi. 196 Not worth a brass button.
b. Colloq. phr. to come (or get) down to brass tacks (or nails): to concern oneself with basic facts or realities. orig. U.S.
1897H. A. Jones Liars i. 23 Come down to brass tacks. What's going to be the end of this? 1903N.Y. Sun 28 Nov. 3 This bold sister was the first..to get down to brass tacks in a discussion of the scandal. 1911H. Quick Yellowstone N. xi. 288 When you come down to brass nails. 1927Daily Express 20 June 2 (Advt.), Let's get down to Brass Tacks. 1932T. S. Eliot Sweeney Agonistes 25 That's all the facts when you come to brass tacks: Birth, and copulation, and death. 1953L. A. G. Strong Personal Remarks 10 When we put theories aside, and come down to brass tacks.
6. General comb.:
a. objective or obj. genitive, as brass-caster, brass-finisher, brass-founder, brass-foundry; brass-finishing adj.;
b. instrumental, as brass-armed, brass-bound (also fig.), brass-mounted, brass-shapen;
c. similative, as brass-bold, brass-bright, brass-coloured, brass-like;
d. parasynthetic, as brass-browed, brass-footed, brass-fronted, brass-handled, brass-headed († brass-head), brass-hilted, brass-plated, brass-scaly, brass-studded, brass-tipped, etc.
1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 45 A *brasse bold merchaunt in causes dangerus hardye. 1880G. M. Hopkins Poems (1918) 50 Now the other was brass-bold.
1867W. Morris Jason vi. 110 The *brass-bound tiller. 1901Daily Chron. 29 Aug. 3/1 The soldierly old brass-bound General. 1913W. de la Mare Peacock Pie 88 His brass-bound cart.
1908Hardy Dynasts III. v. vi. 451 The flames making the faces of the crowd *brass-bright.
1630Prynne Anti-Armin. 238 Dare any *brasse-browed Arminian be so shamelessly absurd.
1725Pope Odyss. xxiv. 607 The *brass-cheek'd helmet.
1851Ruskin King Gold. Riv. i, A very large nose, slightly *brass-coloured.
1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. ii. v. i. (1651) 544 She taught him how to tame the fire-breathing *brass-feeted Bulls.
1879Melbourne Argus 24 Dec. 2/1 The same rates are paid in the fine *brassfinishing shops.
1601Holland Pliny II. 486 A third society..of *brasse-founders.
1716Lond. Gaz. No. 5450/3 A *Brass Foundery is..building at Woolwich.
1613Heywood Braz. Age ii. ii. Wks. 1874 III. 212 And these our *brasse-head buls.
1692Lond. Gaz. No. 2804/4 A *Brass-hilted Sword.
1598Chapman Iliad viii. 36 His *brass-hooved winged horse.
1877A. B. Edwards Up Nile xix. 536 An antique *brass-mounted firelock.
1591Greene Maiden's Dr. Wks. 1881–3 XIV. 306 *Brass-renting Goddesse, she cannot lament.
1590Spenser F.Q. i. xi. 11 His long *bras⁓scaly back.
1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 67 Brandisht tergats, and *brasshapen harneise.
1858Longfellow M. Standish iv. 53 A Bible, Ponderous, bound in leather, *brass-studded, printed in Holland.
1862Mayhew 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; brass-blacking, a dead black surface given to brass ornaments by treatment with chemicals; brass-bounder, (a) see quot. 1890; (b) an apprentice on board ships of English companies, so called from the brass on his uniform; brass-colour, (a) a preparation used to colour objects to resemble brass; (b) a preparation of oxidized brass used to stain glass to various tints of blue and green; † ˈbrasscut, 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-hat slang, an officer of high rank in the British army (or other Service), so called from the gilt insignia on his cap; hence brass-hatted adj.; brass-helmeted a., wearing a brass helmet; † brass-leaf = brasscut; brass lump, a miners' term for massive iron pyrites or marcasite; brass-man, one who plays a brass musical instrument; brass nail [rhyming slang for tail n.1], a prostitute; † 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-plater slang, a man of the professional class; brass-powder, a powder consisting of copper or one of its alloys used in varnish; brass-rag, in slang (orig. Naut.) phr. to part brass-rags, to quarrel; brass-rubbing, the process of rubbing a brass (see rub v.1 1 e); also, the impression thus obtained; so brass-rubber; brass rule, a strip of brass, type-high, used to separate lines or columns of type; ˈbrass-smith, an artificer in brass; ˈbrass-work, artificers' work in brass; pl. an establishment for making or working in brass; ˈbrass-worker, an artificer in brass.
1834C. Brontë in W. Gérin C. Brontë (1967) vi. 84 There are to be five *brass bands each consisting of two trumpets, three bombardones, [etc.]. 1837Hawthorne in Democratic Rev. Oct. 35 A company of summer soldiers,.. attended by the ‘brass band’. 1849Theatrical Programme 9 July 44 The Brass Band on the Lawn will perform an admired Selection of Popular Overtures. 1861N. Brit. Rev. Nov. 392 The gentlemen of the Brass Band. 1871M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. II. vi. 170 The brass band plays horribly.
1599Bp. Hall Sat. iv. i. 162 Esculape! how rife is phisicke made When ech *brasse-basen can profess the trade.
a1884Knight Dict. Mech. Suppl., *Brass-blacking, a dead black color; used freely with French optical instruments.
1890Farmer Slang, *Brass-Bounder (nautical), a midshipman. 1927Blackw. Mag. Sept. 374/2 There were none but sailors, brass-bounders, stewards.
1797Encycl. Brit. III. 519/2 The finest *brass-colour is made with powder brass.., diluted into a varnish. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 169 Brass Colour..is prepared by exposing for several days thin plates of brass upon tiles in the leer or annealing arch of the glass-house, till it be oxidized into a black powder.
1662J. Bargrave Pope Alex. VII (1867) 70 With all the scenes in excellent *brasscutts.
1884F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 36 *Brass Edge in common watch movements, [is] a brass rim fitted round the pillar plate.
1647Lilly Chr. Astrol. cvii. 538 An impudent fellow, a *Brasse-face, yet of good understanding.
1642Rogers Naaman 33 As bare and beggarly as if he had not one *brasse farthing. 1880Besant & Rice Seamy Side x. 78, ‘I care not one brass farthing.’
1893Kipling Many Invent. 210, I tell you der big *brass-hat pizness does not make der trees grow. 1940War Illustr. 5 Jan. 546/1 No one today hears sarcastic reference to ‘brass hats’, the traditional term for the staff officers of the High Command.
1903Kipling Traffics & Discov. (1904) 73 There's a crowd of *brass-'atted blighters there which will say I've been absent without leaf. 1917‘Taffrail’ Off Shore 82 The brass-hatted potentate who regards our quarterly list of breakages with a horny and unsympathetic eye.
1897Westm. Gaz. 22 Nov. 9/1 The *brass-helmeted firemen.
1677Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 53 A thin piece of *Brass-latin.
1654Gayton Fest. Notes iii. i. 66 In the book..a great Cut or *Brasse leafe.
1674Phil. Trans. IX. 222 Pieces of the ordinary Fire⁓stones or Marcasite of the Coal-pits which here we call *Brass-lumps. 1757Walker in Phil. Trans. L. 146 It is..exceeding ponderous, and of a shining yellow colour, and is called by the miners brass lumps.
1872T. Hardy Under Greenw. Tree I. i. iv. 50 They should ha' stuck to strings. Your *brass-man, is brass—well and good; your reed-man, is reed—well and good. 1958B. Rust in P. Gammond Decca Bk. of Jazz iv. 60 These two fine brassmen made good jazz.
1934P. Allingham Cheapjack 317 Brass (*Brassnail), prostitute. 1938F. D. Sharpe S. of Flying Squad i. 15 Ladies whom the Underworld calls ‘brass nails’.
1655Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. §100 All..of these Inventions..shall be Printed by *Brass-plates. 1771Encycl. Brit. III. 511/1 The compositor..puts..this slip of brass-plate..in the composing-stick. 1836Dickens Sk. Boz I. 96 A brass-plate on the private door with ‘Ladies School’ legibly engraved thereon. 1860Mrs. Gaskell Right at Last, I saw a brass-plate with Doctor James Brown upon it. 1894Brass plate [see plate n. 5 b].
1921Glasgow Herald 9 Apr. 6 Steelworkers and bankers, ship-platers and ‘*brass-platers’, ‘workers’ and ‘parasites’, we shall all have to take off our coats.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 169 Only so much of the *brass powder and varnish should be mixed at a time as is wanted for immediate use.
1898W. P. Drury Tadpole of Archangel 141 The graceful figures stiffened, passing each other with..eyes fixed on futurity... ‘Don't you know that we've parted *brassrags?’ Ibid. 142 When ‘Pincher’ Martin, Ordinary, and ‘Nobby’ Clarke, A.B., desire to prove the brotherly love..with which each inspires the other, it is their..custom to keep their brasswork cleaning rags in a joint ragbag. But, should relations..become strained between them, the bag owner casts forth upon the deck..his sometime brother's rags; and with the parting of the brassrags hostilities begin. 1903Kipling Traffics & Discov. (1904) 49 You'll shut your mouth..or you an' me'll part brass rags. 1922Mrs. A. Sidgwick Victorian vii, If you dare to use that word flapper in my hearing..we part brass rags. 1959Economist 14 Mar. 979/2 He seems to have finally parted brass rags with the Arab nationalists and President Nasser.
1856Athenæum 17 May 626 The quiet haunts of the *brass-rubber.
1886C. M. Yonge Chantry House II. xiv. 135 Her greatest achievement in *brass-rubbing, a severe and sable knight. 1890H. W. Macklin Monumental Brasses ii. 27 Brass-rubbings are greatly improved by being mounted. 1897(title) The Oxford Journal of Monumental Brasses, being the Journal of the Oxford University Brass-Rubbing Society. 1952E. Coxhead Play Toward ii. 68 He'd cycled over with one of your girls, and they were taking brass rubbings in the church.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. iv. Has he not seen the Scottish *Brasssmith's Idea?
1664Phil. Trans. I. 25 In the *Brass-works of Tivoli. 1689Lond. Gaz. No. 2509/4 Black Japan Gilt Brass-work. 1761Wesley Jrnl. 13 Sept., Employed in the neighbouring brass-works. 1805Chron. in Ann. Reg. 378/1 The brass work being over-heated.
1723Lond. Gaz. No. 6171/10 Benjamin Gibbons..*Brassworker.
Add:[II.] [7.] brass monkey weather (see monkey n. 13 b).
▪ II. brass, v.1|brɑːs, -æ-|
[f. prec.: cf. to tin.]
1. a. trans. To coat with brass by electro-plating or otherwise.
c1865G. Gore in Circ. Sc. I. 213/1 Solutions used for coppering or brassing iron. Ibid. 222/1 Copper articles may be superficially brassed.
b. fig. To cover with effrontery. to brass it (colloq.): to put on a face of brass, to behave with effrontery.
1859Times 18 Mar. 8/6 To wipe his mouth and brass his brow, and charge us with underrating our fellow countrymen.
2. intr. To pay up. Also trans. slang.
1898J. D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 147 Now..p'raps you'll pay the man. Go on—brass up! Ibid. 150 Along comes Mister Internashonal, an' brasses up every stiver o' that twenty-eight quid. 1939F. Thompson Lark Rise vi. 119 Husbands and sons at work ‘brassed up’ on Friday nights. 1949Wodehouse Mating Season viii. 79 What did he soak him? Five quid?.. And Gussie brassed up and was free?
3. slang (orig. Services').
a. (See quot. 1925.)
b. (See quot. 1943.)
1925Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words 35 To brass off: to grumble. 1943Hunt & Pringle Service Slang 16 The verb brass off means to tell off severely. 1964V. Canning Scorpio Lett. iv. 75 After I'd brassed you off for pinching my parking space.
▪ III. † brass, v.2 Obs. rare—1.
[a. OF. brasse-r to burn.]
? To burn, to scorch.
1481Caxton Myrr. iii. xv. 167 They rested them not by the grete fyres ne brassed not as som doo now. |