brash

• IPA^(key): /bɹæʃ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æʃ

Uncertain. Perhaps from Scots brash, brasch (“a violent onset; an attack or assault”). Perhaps also related to Dutch bars (“stern; strict”), German barsch (“harsh; unfriendly”), Danish barsk (“harsh; rough; tough”), Swedish barsk (“harsh; impetuous”).

brash (comparative brasher or more brash, superlative brashest or most brash)

1. (of people or behaviour) Overly bold or self-assertive to the point of being insensitive, tactless or impudent; shameless.

   Synonyms: audacious, brassy, brazen, cocky, undiplomatic

   a brash young businessman; a brash tabloid; a brash sense of humour

   • 1902, Opie Read, The Starbucks‎^[1], Chicago: Laird & Lee, Chapter, page 210:

     Mrs. Mayfield looked away, and the girl stricken with remorse, hastened to her and said: “There, I have been too brash, haven’t I? You must forgive me for I didn’t intend to be brash.”
     “Brash, my dear? What do you mean by that?”
     She laughed. “Why, I thought everybody know’d what brash meant. Well, it’s er—too quick to say somethin’ you oughtn’t to say.”

   • 1925, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 17, in Arrowsmith‎^[2]:

     Trouble with Silzer is, he’s too brash—shoots off his mouth too much—likes to hear himself talk.

   • 1958, Peter De Vries, chapter 14, in Mackerel Plaza, Penguin, published 1986, page 209:

     The American’s brash unconcern for nuance indicates a young and vigorous country, the Briton’s clipped speech an ancient, proverbial reserve.

   • 2013, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, chapter 54, in Americanah, New York: Knopf:

     Edusco liked him, he could tell; he imagined Edusco talking about him in a gathering of other self-made Igbo men, men who were brash and striving, who juggled huge businesses and supported vast extended families.

2. (of actions) Overly bold, impetuous or rash.

   Synonyms: foolhardy, reckless

   • 1905, Andy Adams, chapter 2, in The Outlet‎^[3], Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, page 22:

     […] just because you’re a little hot under the collar, don’t do anything brash, for fear you may regret it afterward.

   • 1960 April, George O. Smith, “The Troublemakers”, in Galaxy Science Fiction, volume 18, number 4, page 156:

     Now, Mr. Reed, you’ve committed nothing but a brash act of bad taste by bypassing the standard channels.

3. (of things) Bold, bright or showy, often in a tasteless way.

   Synonyms: flashy, garish, loud, splashy; see also Thesaurus:gaudy

   brash colours

   a brash perfume

   • 1963, Ian Fleming, Thrilling Cities, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter 1, “Hong Kong,”^[4]

     There are scores of brash and noisy bars along Lockhart Street and in Wanchai and North Point (on the island) and throughout the back lanes of Kowloon […]

   • 1996, Guy Vanderhaeghe, chapter 24, in The Englishman’s Boy‎^[5], New York: Picador, published 1998, page 243:

     The driveway is filled with vehicles parked bumper to bumper and the house is lit up like I’ve never seen it before, brash yellow light streaming from every window on every floor, and the tinny, nasal sound of gramophone jazz trumpeting inside.

   • 2001, Walt Dohrn et al. “Artist Unknown”, SpongeBob SquarePants, season 2, episode 18b, Nickelodeon

     Squidward: How about this one? I call it, Bold and Brash.

     Art Curator: More like, belongs in the trash!

   • 2021 December 15, Robin Leleux, “Awards honour the best restoration projects: The Great Western Railway Craft Skills Award: Victoria Arcade”, in RAIL, number 946, page 59:

     Sadly, by the 1970s the arcade had gone downmarket with brash shop fronts and cheap shops, some of doubtful reputation.

brash (countable and uncountable, plural brashes)

1. A rash or eruption; a sudden or transient fit of sickness.
2. A sudden burst of rain.
3. (obsolete) An attack or assault.

• water brash
• weaning brash

brash (third-person singular simple present brashes, present participle brashing, simple past and past participle brashed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To disturb.

(Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) Compare American English bresk, brusk (“fragile, brittle”).

brash (comparative brasher or more brash, superlative brashest or most brash)

1. (US, colloquial, dated) Brittle (said e.g. of wood or vegetables).
   • 1886, The Lumberman's Hand Book, page 24:

     Hickory axles […] all cut from tough butt logs. Brash timber is excluded.

   • 1919, Forest Products Laboratory, Wood in Aircraft Construction:

     Brash wood, when tested in bending, breaks with a short, sharp fracture instead of developing a splintering failure and absorbs a comparatively small amount of work between the elastic limit and final failure

   • 2000, Jean-Nicolas-Louis Durand, Précis of the Lectures on Architecture (page 94)

     […] brash timber, which is liable to snap; […]

brash (countable and uncountable, plural brashes)

1. Leaf litter of small leaves and little twigs as found under a hedge.
2. (geology) Broken and angular rock fragments underlying alluvial deposits.
   • 1839, Sir Charles Lyell, Elements of Geology:

     Alluvium differs from the rubble or brash , just described , as being composed of sand and gravel , more or less rolled

3. Broken fragments of ice.
   • 1853, Elisha Kent Kane, The U. S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin:

     The sea dashed in an angry surf over its inclined sides, rattling the icy fragments or “brash” against its irregular surface

• “brash”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

• Harbs, brahs, h bars, h-bars, hbars, shrab

brash (plural brashes)

1. illness, fit

• water brash