| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| brave |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  br v |
| ADJECTIVE: | Inflected forms: brav·er, brav·est
1. Possessing or displaying courage; valiant. 2. Making a fine display; impressive or showy: “a coat of brave red lipstick on a mouth so wrinkled that it didn't even have a clear outline” (Anne Tyler). 3. Excellent; great: “The Romans were like brothers/In the brave days of old” (Thomas Macaulay). | | NOUN: | 1. A Native American warrior. 2. A courageous person. 3. Archaic A bully. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: braved, brav·ing, braves
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To undergo or face courageously. 2. To challenge; dare: “Together they would brave Satan and all his legions” (Emily Brontë). 3. Obsolete To make showy or splendid. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | Archaic To make a courageous show or put up a stalwart front. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old French, from Old Italian or Old Spanish bravo, wild, brave, excellent, probably from Vulgar Latin *brabus, from Latin barbarus. See barbarous. | | OTHER FORMS: | brave ly —ADVERB
braveness —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | brave, courageous, fearless, intrepid, bold, audacious, valiant, valorous, mettlesome, plucky, dauntless, undaunted These adjectives mean having or showing courage under difficult or dangerous conditions. Brave, the least specific, is frequently associated with an innate quality: “Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver” (Herman Melville). Courageous implies consciously rising to a specific test by drawing on a reserve of inner strength: The courageous soldier helped the civilians escape from the enemy. Fearless emphasizes absence of fear and resolute self-possession: “world-class [boating] races for fearless loners willing to face the distinct possibility of being run down, dismasted, capsized, attacked by whales” (Jo Ann Morse Ridley). Intrepid sometimes suggests invulnerability to fear: Intrepid pioneers settled the American West. Bold stresses readiness to meet danger or difficulty and often a tendency to seek it out: “If we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at the hazard of their lives … then bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by” (Theodore Roosevelt). Audacious implies extreme confidence and boldness: “To demand these God-given rights is to seek black power—what I call audacious power” (Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.). Valiant suggests the bravery of a hero or a heroine: “a sympathetic and detailed biography that sees Hemingway as a valiant and moral man” (New York Times). Valorous applies to the deeds of heroes and heroines: “The other hostages [will] never forget her calm, confident, valorous work” (William W. Bradley). Mettlesome stresses spirit and love of challenge: “her horse, whose mettlesome spirit required a better rider” (Henry Fielding). Plucky emphasizes spirit and heart in the face of unfavorable odds: “Everybody was … anxious to show these Belgians what England thought of their plucky little country” (H.G. Wells). Dauntless refers to courage that resists subjection or intimidation: “So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,/There never was knight like the young Lochinvar” (Sir Walter Scott). Undaunted suggests persistent courage and resolve: “Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey…. We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible” (Winston S. Churchill).See also synonyms at defy.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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