Meanings
nounbrasswork (uncountable)
- uncountableWork or ornamentation made of brass.
The brasswork here, how rich it is in beams, / And how, besides, it makes the whole house sound.
1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC1 more example
The locomotive had been magnificently burnished at Norwich depot, with polished brasswork and red-painted coupling rods—all the more creditable, Dr. Allen adds, as it spent many months last winter in open store.
1960 March 28, “Notes and News: Two Scenes from Norfolk”, in Railway Magazine, page 214
Origin
Cite this entry
APA
brasswork. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brasswork
MLA
“brasswork.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brasswork. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “brasswork,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brasswork.
Source: brasswork on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.