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Brass band   /bræs bænd/   Listen
noun
Brass  n.  (pl. brasses)  
1.
An alloy (usually yellow) of copper and zinc, in variable proportion, but often containing two parts of copper to one part of zinc. It sometimes contains tin, and rarely other metals.
2.
(Mach.) A journal bearing, so called because frequently made of brass. A brass is often lined with a softer metal, when the latter is generally called a white metal lining. See Axle box, Journal Box, and Bearing.
3.
Coin made of copper, brass, or bronze. (Obs.) "Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey."
4.
Impudence; a brazen face. (Colloq.)
5.
pl. Utensils, ornaments, or other articles of brass. "The very scullion who cleans the brasses."
6.
A brass plate engraved with a figure or device. Specifically, one used as a memorial to the dead, and generally having the portrait, coat of arms, etc.
7.
pl. (Mining) Lumps of pyrites or sulphuret of iron, the color of which is near to that of brass. Note: The word brass as used in Sculpture language is a translation for copper or some kind of bronze. Note: Brass is often used adjectively or in self-explaining compounds; as, brass button, brass kettle, brass founder, brass foundry or brassfoundry.
Brass band (Mus.), a band of musicians who play upon wind instruments made of brass, as trumpets, cornets, etc.
Brass foil, Brass leaf, brass made into very thin sheets; called also Dutch gold.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Brass band" Quotes from Famous Books



... fellow-countrymen, but because they were noisy and obtrusive, obliterating with their big limbs and tweed clothing all the quieter tints of the day that brought him satisfaction and enabled him to melt into insignificance and forget that he was anybody. These English clashed about him like a brass band, making him feel vaguely that he ought to be more self-assertive and obstreperous, and that he did not claim insistently enough all kinds of things that he didn't want and that were really valueless, such as corner seats, windows up or ...
— Three John Silence Stories • Algernon Blackwood
... acacias and adorned by a fountain representing a desperate-looking character in the act of firing a finely executed revolver at an imaginary oppressor. Pigs were not allowed within the limits of the town, and the uniforms of the municipal brass band were perfectly new. Could civilisation do more? The bank of which Del Ferice was a director bought the octroi duties of the town at the periodical auction, and farmed them skilfully, together with those of many other towns ...
— Don Orsino • F. Marion Crawford
... the journals, one after the other, or watched the sparrows fly about and peck up the grains in the sand. Children ran here and there, playing at ball; and, above the noise of the promenaders, arose the music of the brass band. ...
— Prince Zilah, Complete • Jules Claretie
... understood the true function of the magnificent orchestra that dominated the scene. It was the function of a brass band at a quack-dentist's booth in a fair,—to drown the cries of the victims of the ...
— Mr. Prohack • E. Arnold Bennett
... so," said Minard, "and so should I, but we shouldn't have done it with a brass band; we should have paid our money quietly, like gentlemen. But this electoral manager, how is he going to pay it? Out of ...
— The Lesser Bourgeoisie • Honore de Balzac


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