Meanings
nounbrownface (uncountable)
- uncountableA style of theatrical makeup in which a white person colours the face brown in order to represent somebody of another race.
The problem isn’t so much Lancaster’s unconvincing brownface makeup — though it looks as if it had been applied by the same heavy laborers who blacktopped Laurence Olivier for “Othello” — as it is the extremely un-Leonardian softness of his presence.
2007 September 2, Terrence Rafferty, “Elmore Leonard’s Men of Few Words, in a Few Words”, in New York Times
Origin
From brown + face, based on earlier blackface.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
APA
brownface. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brownface
MLA
“brownface.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brownface. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “brownface,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/brownface.
Source: brownface on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.