brave

See also: bravé

English

Etymology

From Middle French brave, borrowed from Italian bravo, itself of uncertain origin (see there).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: brāv, IPA(key): /bɹeɪv/
  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -eɪv

Adjective

brave (comparative braver, superlative bravest)

  1. Strong in the face of fear; courageous.
    Synonyms: bold, daring, doughty, orped, resilient, stalwart
    Antonyms: cowardly, fearful, mean, weak
  2. (obsolete) Having any sort of superiority or excellence.
    • Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
      Iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth.
    • Samuel Pepys (1633-1703)
      It being a brave day, I walked to Whitehall.
  3. Making a fine show or display.
    • William Shakespeare (c.1564–1616)
      Wear my dagger with the braver grace.
    • Robert Greene (1558-1592)
      For I have gold, and therefore will be brave. / In silks I'll rattle it of every color.
    • Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
      Frog and lizard in holiday coats / And turtle brave in his golden spots.
    • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803:
      So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, [] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

Synonyms

Translations

Noun

brave (plural braves)

  1. (dated, possibly offensive) A Native American warrior.
  2. (obsolete) A man daring beyond discretion; a bully.
    • John Dryden
      Hot braves like thee may fight.
  3. (obsolete) A challenge; a defiance; bravado.
    • William Shakespeare
      Demetrius, thou dost overween in all; / And so in this, to bear me down with braves.

Translations

Verb

brave (third-person singular simple present braves, present participle braving, simple past and past participle braved)

  1. (transitive) To encounter with courage and fortitude, to defy, to provoke.
    • 1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act IV, sc. 3:
      For Cassius is aweary of the world;
      Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;
      Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed,
      Set in a notebook, learned, and conned by rote,
      To cast into my teeth.
    • 1670, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards:
      The ills of Love, not those of Fate, I fear,
      These I can brave, but those I cannot bear []
    • 1773, A Farmer, Rivington's New-York Gazetteer, Number 53, December 2
      [] but they [Parliament] never will be braved into it.
    After braving tricks on the high-dive, he braved a jump off the first diving platform.
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To adorn; to make fine or showy.
    • ca. 1590–92, William Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew, Act Iv, sc. 3 (addressed to a tailor; first use in sense of "adorn", second and third uses in sense of "confront"):
      Face not me. Thou hast braved many men; brave
      not me. I will neither be faced nor braved.

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

References


    Esperanto

    Etymology 1

    brava + -e

    Adverb

    brave

    1. bravely, valiantly

    Etymology 2

    From Italian bravo.

    Interjection

    brave

    1. bravo

    French

    Etymology

    Probably borrowed from Italian bravo. Compare Spanish, Portuguese bravo.

    Pronunciation

    • IPA(key): /bʁav/
    • (file)

    Adjective

    brave (plural braves)

    1. brave
    2. honest

    Synonyms

    Noun

    brave m (plural braves)

    1. hero

    Further reading

    Anagrams


    German

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -aːvə

    Adjective

    brave

    1. inflected form of brav

    Italian

    Adjective

    brave

    1. Feminine plural of adjective bravo.

    Norman

    Etymology

    From Late Latin *bravus.

    Adjective

    brave m or f

    1. brave

    Derived terms


    Norwegian Bokmål

    Adjective

    brave

    1. definite singular and plural of brav
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