bronze

Etymology

1730-40; from French bronze (1511), from Italian bronzo (13th cent.); see it for more.

noun

1. (uncountable) A naturally occurring or man-made alloy of copper, usually in combination with tin, but also with one or more other metals.
   Coordinate term: brass
2. (countable and uncountable) A reddish-brown colour, the colour of bronze.
   bronze:
3. (countable) A work of art made of bronze, especially a sculpture.
4. A bronze medal.
   She wanted to win the tournament, but had to settle for the bronze after being beaten in the semi-finals.
5. Boldness; impudence.

adj

1. Made of bronze metal.
2. Having a reddish-brown colour.
3. (of the skin) Tanned; darkened as a result of exposure to the sun.
   That girl was dynamite. Dark hair with killer blue eyes, bronze skin, and an exquisite full-figured body. 2016, Kit Moulton, Annabella, page 108

verb

1. (transitive) To plate with bronze.
   My mother bronzed my first pair of baby shoes.
2. (transitive) To color bronze; (of the sun) to tan.
   The sun was so low that its level rays shot through the tunnels of the forest and bronzed its ceiling of woven leaves when Bess returned to the clearing. 1925, DuBose Heyward, Porgy, London: Jonathan Cape, Part IV, p. 137
   North is the bay of Acre, lovely in shape, and, far, far beyond, the cloudy vision of Hermon, its huge landscape now only attainable with a police pass—beautifully solitary except for good-looking young men of the police patrols, all fit and bronzed. 1961, Freya Stark, chapter 8, in Dust in the Lion's Paw: Autobiography 1939-1946, New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, page 122
3. (intransitive, of the skin) To change to a bronze or tan colour due to exposure to the sun.
   His skin began to bronze as he worked in our garden each day. 2006, Melissa Lassor, “Out of Darkness”, in Watching Time, page 124
4. (transitive) To make hard or unfeeling; to brazen.