Definition of "brave"
brave
adjective
comparative braver, superlative bravest
Strong in the face of fear; courageous.
Quotations
For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.
1578–1579, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. [...] Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the Next Page Maketh Mention, London: Imprinted for VVilliam Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591
(obsolete) Having any sort of superiority or excellence.
Quotations
Is it not paſſing braue to be a King,And ride in triumph through Perſepolis?
c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, Act II, scene v
Making a fine show or display.
Quotations
Their plumed helmes are wrought with beaten golde,Their ſwords enameld, and about their neckesHangs maſſie chaines of golde downe to the waſte,In euery part exceding braue and rich.
c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)
So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills, […] a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company
noun
plural braves
(obsolete) A challenge; a defiance; bravado.
Quotations
Demetrius, thou dost overween in all; / And so in this, to bear me down with braves.
c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene i]
verb
third-person singular simple present braves, present participle braving, simple past and past participle braved
(transitive) To encounter with courage and fortitude, to defy, to provoke.
Quotations
For Cassius is aweary of the world;Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;Checked like a bondman; all his faults observed,Set in a notebook, learned, and conned by rote,To cast into my teeth.
1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]
The ills of Love, not those of Fate, I fear,These I can brave, but those I cannot bear […]
1665, John Dryden, The Indian Emperour […], London: Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, published 1667, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)
(transitive, obsolete) To adorn; to make fine or showy.
Quotations
Face not me. Thou hast braved many men; bravenot me. I will neither be faced nor braved.addressed to a tailor; first use in sense of "adorn", second and third uses in sense of "confront"
c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iii]