Bra
name, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An item of clothing, usually underwear worn to support the breasts.
"Mary felt annoyed at the girl; just because bras had become passé, did a girl with so pronounced a bosom have to cater to fashion? In this case practicality dictated a bra, and Mary stood at the desk feeling herself flushing with disapproval."
- 2 One of the two vectors in the standard notation for describing quantum states in quantum mechanics, the row vector; the other (column) vector being its complex conjugate, the ket.
- 3 Alternative form of bro; friend, mate alt-of, alternative, slang
"Take it easy, bra!"
- 4 an undergarment worn by women to support their breasts wordnet
- 1 A city in Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy; known for being the birthplace of the Bra sausage, and the Bra cheese.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Please take off all your clothes except your underpants and bra."
Etymology
Clipping of brassiere, borrowed from French brassière, from Old French braciere (originally a lining inside armor to protect the arm, but later a garment), from Old French brace (“arm”), from Latin bracchia, plural of Latin bracchium (“forearm”), from Ancient Greek βραχίων (brakhíōn, “forearm”), from Proto-Hellenic *brəkʰús (“short”) (because the forearm is shorter than the upper arm), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *mréǵʰus.
From bracket, referring to the notation introduced in 1939 by Paul Dirac.
Representing a different pronunciation of bro (“brother”).
Related phrases
More for "bra"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.