adj, noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   Alternative form of brassie (“type of golf club”). alt-of, alternative
2. 2
   Kyphosus vaigiensis, a fish found in southeast Asia.

Adjective

1. 1
   Resembling brass.

   "The cup had a brassy color."

2. 2
   Impudent; impudently bold. informal

   "Don’t get brassy with me, young lady!"

3. 3
   Unfeeling; pitiless.
4. 4
   Harsh in tone.

   "an organ stop with a brassy tone"

Adjective

1. 1
   unrestrained by convention or propriety wordnet
2. 2
   tastelessly showy wordnet
3. 3
   resembling the sound of a brass instrument wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

adustaffrontarrantarrogantauburnaudacious

Example

More examples

"Don’t get brassy with me, young lady!"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From brass + -y (suffix forming adjectives meaning “having the quality of”).

Etymology 2

From brass + -y (suffix forming diminutive nouns).

Etymology 3

Uncertain.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.