brass up

verb

To pay a debt or hand over money.

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Meanings

verbbrass up (third-person singular simple present brasses up, present participle brassing up, simple past and past participle brassed up)

present singular third person brasses up · participle present brassing up · participle past brassed up · past brassed up

  1. slangTo pay a debt or hand over money.

    "What did he soak him? Five quid?" "Yes, sir." "And Gussie brassed up and was free?"

    1949, P.G. Wodehouse, The Mating Season
  2. slangtransitivegovernmentTo shell.

    The next time I met RSM Simpson was when we were together being 'brassed up' by enemy artillery and mortar […]

    1982, The Listener, volume 108, page 3
    1 more example

    I went back in and threw a hand-grenade under the bed and then I brassed up the house. They were dead, of course.

    1987, Stuart Rintoul, Ashes of Vietnam: Australian voices, page 126
Cite this entry
APA

brass up. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brass%20up

MLA

“brass up.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brass%20up. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “brass up,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brass%20up.

Source: brass up on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.