brave

comparative braver · comparative more brave · superlative bravest · superlative most brave

1. Strong in the face of fear; courageous.

   […]he has been so brave, giving it all a dignity.

   1987, Michael Grumley, The Last Diary

   3 more examples

   For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.

   1578–1579, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. [...] Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the Next Page Maketh Mention, London: Imprinted for VVilliam Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591, →OCLC

   Do not fret, dear. You must be brave and strong, and help me through the horrible task. If you only knew what an effort it is to me to tell of this fearful thing at all, you would understand how much I need your help.

   1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC

   Huntingdon's ferocity makes the reaction of staff all the more brave. To move towards danger when others are fleeing is the definition of bravery in my book. To place yourself in danger to protect others.

   2025 November 12, Philip Haigh, “High praise for rail staff's courage and clear thinking”, in RAIL, number 1048, page 50

   Synonyms: bold, daring, doughty, orped, resilient, stalwart, plucky · Antonyms: cowardly, fearful, mean, weak

2. obsoleteHaving any sort of superiority or excellence.

   It being a brave day, I walked to Whitehall.

   18 February 1666, Samuel Pepys, diary entry

   2 more examples

   Is it not paſſing braue to be a King, And ride in triumph through Perſepolis?

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene v

   Iron is a brave commodity where wood aboundeth.

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Plantations”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

3. Making a fine show or display.

   Wear my dagger with the braver grace.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

   4 more examples

   Their plumed helmes are wrought with beaten golde, Their ſwords enameld, and about their neckes Hangs maſſie chaines of golde downe to the waſte, In euery part exceding braue and rich.

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act I, scene ii

   For I have gold, and therefore will be brave. / In silks I'll rattle it of every color.

   1611, John Cooke, Greene's Tu Quoque

   Frog and lizard in holiday coats / And turtle brave in his golden spots.

   1867, Ralph Waldo Emerson, May-Day

   So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.

   1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC

4. UKeuphemisticFoolish or unwise.

   Synonyms: courageous

plural braves

1. datedA Native American warrior.
2. obsoleteA man daring beyond discretion; a bully.

   Hot Braves, like thee, may fight; but know not well / To manage this, the laſt great Stake of Hell.

   1674 (date written), John Dryden, The State of Innocence, and Fall of Man: An Opera. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1677, →OCLC, Act I, page 6

   1 more example

   In no other land, in modern times, have towns so absolutely died and disappeared, as in the old mining regions of California. […] For, observe, it was an assemblage of two hundred thousand young men—not simpering, dainty, kid-gloved weaklings, but stalwart, muscular, dauntless young braves, brimful of push and energy, and royally endowed with every attribute that goes to make up a peerless and magnificent manhood—the very pick and choice of the world's glorious ones.

   1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “”, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, pages 414–415

3. obsoleteA challenge; a defiance; bravado.

   Demetrius, thou dost overween in all; / And so in this, to bear me down with braves.

   c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

present singular third person braves · participle present braving · participle past braved · past braved

1. transitiveTo encounter or withstand with courage and fortitude, to defy, to provoke.

   After braving tricks on the high-dive, he braved a jump off the first diving platform.

   4 more examples

   He braved the storm and spent the night outside. In the morning, he braved his parents' wrath.

   For Cassius is aweary of the world; Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother; Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed, Set in a notebook, learned, and conned by rote, To cast into my teeth.

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]

   The ills of Love, not those of Fate, I fear, These I can brave, but those I cannot bear […]

   1665 (first performance), John Dryden, The Indian Emperour, or, The Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for H[enry] Herringman […], published 1667, →OCLC, (please specify the page)

   […] but they [Parliament] never will be braved into it.

   1773, A Farmer, Rivington's New-York Gazetteer, Number 53, December 2

2. obsoletetransitiveTo adorn; to make fine or showy.

   Face not me. Thou hast braved many men; brave not me. I will neither be faced nor braved.

   c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]

plural Braves

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. countableuncountableA census-designated place in Greene County, Pennsylvania, United States.