From Middle English brasen, from Old English bræsen; equivalent to brass + -en (compare golden, wooden, etc.

The word originally meant “of brass”; the figurative verb sense (as in brazen it out) dates from the 1550s (perhaps evoking the sense “face like brass, unmoving and not showing shame”), and the adjective sense “impudent” from the 1570s.

• enPR: brāzʹn, IPA: /ˈbɹeɪzən/

brazen

1. (archaic) Made of brass.
   • 1786, Francis Grose, Military Antiquities Respecting a History of the English Army, from the Conquest to the Present Time, London: Printed for S. Hooper […], OCLC 745209064 ↗; republished as Military Antiquities Respecting a History of the English Army, from the Conquest to the Present Time, volume II, new [2nd] edition with material additions and improvements, London: Printed for T[homas] Egerton, […]; & G. Kearsley, […], 1801, OCLC 435979550 ↗, page 262 ↗:

     Brazen or rather copper swords seem to have been next introduced; these in process of time, workmen learned to harden by the addition of some other metal or mineral, which rendered them almost equal in temper to iron.

2. (figuratively) Brass-like in appearance or character; bright, ruddy, hard.
   • 1913 January–May, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Gods of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC ↗; republished as “The Plant Men”, in The Gods of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., 1918 September, →OCLC ↗, page 3 ↗:

     The vegetation was similar to that which covers the lawns of the red Martians of the great waterways, but the trees and birds were unlike anything that I had ever seen upon Mars, and then through the further trees I could see that most un-Martian of all sights—an open sea, its blue waters shimmering beneath the brazen sun.

3. Sounding harsh and loud, like brass cymbals or brass instruments.
   • 1697, Virgil; John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. Translated into English Verse; […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson, […], OCLC 839376905 ↗; republished as The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. Translated into English Verse by Mr. Dryden. In Three Volumes, volume III, 5th edition, London: Printed by Jacob Tonson […], 1721, OCLC 181805247 ↗, book IX, page 822, lines 667–670 ↗:

     And now the Trumpets terribly from far, / With rattling Clangor, rouze the sleepy War. / The Souldiers Shouts succeed the Brazen Sounds, / And Heav'n, from Pole to Pole, the Noise rebounds.

4. (archaic) Extremely strong; impenetrable; resolute.
5. Shameless or impudent; shocking or audacious; brash. [from 1570s]

   She was brazen enough to deny stealing the handbag even though she was caught on closed-circuit television doing so.

• French: cuivreux
• German: messingen, aus Messing, Messing-
• Italian: ottone, ottonato
• Russian: латунный

• French: aigu
• German: metallisch, metallen, blechern
• Italian: squillante

• French: dur comme de la pierre, impénétrable
• German: ehern, widerstandsfähig, undurchdringlich, stark

• French: brutal, éhonté, grossier
• German: dreist, schamlos, frech, unverschämt, unverfroren
• Italian: faccia di bronzo, sfacciato, sfrontato
• Portuguese: descarado
• Russian: бессты́жий
• Spanish: descarado

brazen (brazens, present participle brazening; simple past and past participle brazened)

1. (intransitive) To turn a brass color.
2. (transitive) Generally followed by out or through: to carry through in a brazen manner; to act boldly despite embarrassment, risk, etc. [from 1550s.]
   • 1887, William Black, “Flight”, in Sabina Zembra […], volume I, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC ↗, page 171 ↗:

     Sabina brazened it out before Mrs. Wygram; but inwardly she was resolved to be a good deal more circumspect.

• German: sich durchsetzen, poltern, mutig durchstehen, großspurig handeln
• Italian: ignorare sfacciatamente