BRASSY (brassier, brassiest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: brassier    , brassiest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does brassy mean? 

• BRASSY (adjective)
  The adjective BRASSY has 3 senses:

1. resembling the sound of a brass instrument

2. tastelessly showy

3. unrestrained by convention or propriety

  Familiarity information: BRASSY used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BRASSY (adjective)

Comparative: brassier   
Superlative: brassiest   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Resembling the sound of a brass instrument

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

brasslike; brassy

Pertainym:

brass (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)

Derivation:

brass (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)

brass (the section of a band or orchestra that plays brass instruments)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Tastelessly showy

Synonyms:

brassy; cheap; flash; flashy; garish; gaudy; gimcrack; loud; meretricious; tacky; tatty; tawdry; trashy

Context example:

tawdry ornaments

Similar:

tasteless (lacking aesthetic or social taste)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Unrestrained by convention or propriety

Synonyms:

audacious; bald-faced; barefaced; bodacious; brassy; brazen; brazen-faced; insolent

Context example:

the modern world with its quick material successes and insolent belief in the boundless possibilities of progress

Similar:

unashamed (used of persons or their behavior; feeling no shame)

Derivation:

brass (impudent aggressiveness)

 Context examples 

Outside lay the yellow, brassy glare of the sunshine, with the shadows of the palm trees as black and definite as the trees themselves.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He wore rather baggy grey shepherd’s check trousers, a not over-clean black frock-coat, unbuttoned in the front, and a drab waistcoat with a heavy brassy Albert chain, and a square pierced bit of metal dangling down as an ornament.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)