▪ I. bronze, n.
(brɒnz)
[a. F. bronze (16th c. in Littré), ad. It. bronzo ‘brass or bell-metal’ (Florio); whence also Sp. bronze, bronce. The origin of the It. is uncertain: Muratori, cited by Diez, thinks it formed from bruno ‘brown’, through an intermediate *brunizzo, *bruniccio:—late L. brunitius ‘brownish, brown-coloured’. But this is very doubtful phonetically. Diez also mentions Venetian bronza glowing coals, ‘perh. the Ger. brunst fire, burning, heat’, as possibly connected.]
1. a. A brown-coloured alloy of copper and tin, sometimes also containing a little zinc and lead. Formerly included under the term brass, q.v.; the name bronze was introduced for the material of ancient works of art, or perhaps rather for the works of art themselves: see sense 2.
The ratio of the constituents in ordinary bronze is about 8 or 9 parts of copper to 1 of tin; in bell-metal the proportion of tin is much greater. See bell-metal. (A bronze currency was introduced in Great Britain instead of copper in 1860; but from traditional habit, a bronze coin is still called familiarly ‘a copper’.)
| [1617 F. Moryson Itin. i. ii. iii. 170 The brasen Serpent..was of mixt mettall, vulgarly [i.e. in the vulgar Italian tongue] called di bronzo.] 1739 Gray Let. in Poems (1775) 49 Nymphs and tritons, all in bronze. 1755 Johnson, Bronze (bronze Fr.) 1 Brass. 2 Relief or statue cast in brass. 1806 Drennan Imit. Juvenal Sat. viii. in Poet. Register (1806) 131 With ancestry around you plac'd In bronze, or marble, porcelain or paste. 1835 W. Irving Tour Prairies 50 Like figures of monumental bronze. 1854 Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 492 Statue bronze contains only about two per cent. of tin, melted with ninety-one per cent. of copper, six per cent. of zinc, and one per cent. of lead. 1868 G. Stephens Runic Mon. I. 74 The Age of Bronze follows the Stone Age and precedes the Age of Iron. 1886 Pall Mall G. 13 Feb. 10/2 The prisoner..had in his possession 3s. 6d. in silver and 3s. 4d. in bronze. |
b. aluminium bronze: see
aluminium.
phosphor-bronze: an alloy consisting of bronze or copper with a small proportion of phosphorus added, which increases its tenacity.
| 1875 Ure Dict. Arts III. 555 Experiments on the capacity of phosphor-bronze to resist the oxidation of sea-water. 1878 Print. Trades Jrnl. xxv. 10 In the construction of this beautiful engine steel and phosphor-bronze are used. |
c. bronze medal: a medal of bronze,
usu. one awarded for achieving third place in a competition or athletic contest, as in the Olympic Games (see also
quot. 1984);
cf. medal n. 2 b. Also
ellipt. as
bronze.
| 1852, 1908 [see medal n. 2 b]. 1960 Times 5 Sept. 4/6 Italy..gained a silver and a bronze. 1976 All about Games (Com. Org. des Jeux Olympiques) 20 Canada entered an official 91-member team which won three gold, three silver, and seven bronze medals. 1984 Daily Tel. 25 Apr. 20/4 In December Berry [sc. a lifeboatman] saved two more lives—and won a bronze medal. |
2. (with
pl.) A work of art, as a statue, etc., executed in bronze.
| a 1721 Prior Alma iii, How little gives thee joy or pain; A print, a bronze, a flower, a root. 1841 Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 217 Its bronzes and bas-reliefs are also very important. 1871 Morley Crit. Misc. (1886) I. 67 Gay with the clocks, the bronzes, the tapestries, of the ruined court. |
† 3. fig. a. Impudence, unblushingness. (
Cf. brass.)
| 1728 Pope Dunc. iii. 199 Imbrown'd with native bronze, lo! Henley stands. 1768 Goldsm. Good-n. Man ii. i, Mrs. Croaker. ‘You don't want assurance when you come to solicit for your friends.’ Lofty. ‘O, there indeed I'm in bronze.’ 1823 Byron (title) The Age of Bronze. |
† b. A gull, a cheat.
Obs. slang. Cf. bronze v. 4.
| 1817 Blackw. Mag. I. 137 This is not a ‘bronze’—no story of fancy. |
4. (More fully
bronze powder: see 7): A metallic powder (usually brass, copper, or tin) used in painting, printing, and the like.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Bronze, also denotes a colour prepared by the colourmen of Paris. 1846 Print. Appar. Amateurs 47 Printing in gold, silver and copper bronzes. 1854 Brandeis Acc. New York Exhib. in Ure Dict. Arts I. 539 Bronzes, or more correctly metallic powders resembling gold dust, were invented in 1648, by a monk, at Furth, in Bavaria. 1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 540 Vanadate of copper has..been recommended as a new bronze. |
5. A brown colour like that of bronze.
| 1817 Byron Beppo xlv, The rich peasant-cheek of ruddy bronze. |
6. attrib. or as adj. a. Made of bronze.
| 1839 Thirlwall Greece I. 237 The first bronze statue was probably much later than the age of Homer. 1857 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art 23 Bronze crosses of honour. 1875 Jevons Money (1878) 121 The bronze coinage. |
b. Of the colour of bronze, bronze-coloured.
| 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 274 Legs spinous, of a shining black bronze-colour. 1872 C. King Sierra Nev. xiii. 276 Deep bronze foliage. 1883 Truth 31 May 768/2 Scarlet stockings and bronze boots. |
7. Comb.:
attrib. as
bronze-smith; instrumental, as
bronze-bound,
bronze-gleaming,
bronze-shod; adverbial, as
bronze-golden,
bronze-purple; parasynthetic, as
bronze-faced,
bronze-foreheaded;
bronze age = bronze-period;
bronze-backer U.S., angler's name for the black bass;
bronze diabetes, a disorder of iron metabolism in which hæmosiderin is deposited in the tissues and the skin becomes bronzed; also called
hæmochromatosis;
bronze disease, a form of corrosion affecting the surface of bronze;
bronze-founder, one who founds or casts bronze, or fashions articles of bronze; so
bronze founding;
bronze-gilt, made of bronze and covered with gilding (
cf. silver-gilt);
bronze-liquor, any liquor used for bronzing;
bronze man (
Archæol.), a man living in the bronze period;
bronze period (
Archæol.), the prehistoric period during which weapons, etc. were made of bronze, and which was preceded by the Stone Period, and succeeded by the Iron Period;
bronze paint (see
quot.);
bronze powder = sense 4 above;
ˈbronze-wing, a kind of pigeon (
Phaps chalcoptera) found in Australasia; also
bronze-wing pigeon;
bronze-winged (also bronzed-winged) pigeon = bronze-wing.
| 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times 31 There are four principal theories as to the *Bronze age. 1879 ― Sci. Lect. vi. 175 The Bronze Age..a period when the weapons were made almost entirely, and ornaments principally, of Bronze. |
| 1888 Goode Amer. Fishes 56 ‘*Bronze-backer’ is one of its pet names among the anglers. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 452/1 This old bronze-backer [sc. small-mouth bass] weighed..six pounds and five ounces. |
| [1900 E. Kleen On Diabetes Mellitus iv. 137 Bronze-colored diabetes generally appears in men between forty and sixty years old.] 1901 Dunglison Dict. Med. Sci. (ed. 22) 1214/2 *Bronze diabetes, diabetes accompanied with pigmentation of various secretory organs and with sclerosis of the liver and pancreas. 1966 P. E. Lacy in W. A. D. Anderson Pathology (ed. 5) II. xxix. 958/2 The term ‘bronze diabetes’ is sometimes used since increased pigmentation of the skin, diabetes mellitus, and cirrhosis of the liver may be present in hemochromatosis. |
| 1925 Fink & Eldridge Restoration Anc. Bronzes 42 The usual immediate cause of the *bronze disease is the presence of a trace of chloride, and the action is..electrolytic. 1961 Antiquaries Jrnl. XLI. 31 The bucranium..has a few spots of active copper chloride (‘bronze disease’). |
| 1896 Godey's Mag. Apr. 404/1 That gentle figure of contentment, *bronze-faced and white-apparelled. |
| 1851 Ruskin Stones Ven. I. App. xvii. 393 Not all the tubular bridges nor engineering of ten thousand nineteenth centuries cast into one great *bronze-foreheaded century. |
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 333 The *bronze-founder should study to obtain a rapid fusion. |
| 1869 Van Nostrand's Eclectic Engin. Mag. I. 834/1 Brass and *bronze-founding is much more of a speciality in France..than it has (hitherto at least) ever been in England. 1897 Daily News 18 Jan. 6/4 Two works which Benvenuto Cellini wrote..on bronze founding. |
| 1877 W. Jones Finger-ring L. 207 *Bronze-gilt Papal rings. |
| 1882 Garden 10 June 399/2 Its *bronze-golden flowers. |
| 1874 Sayce Compar. Philol. iii. 114 The Etruscans may have been the *bronze-men of the Swiss lakes. |
| 1875 Ure Dict. Arts I. 539 *Bronze paint, commonly called gold paint, is made by mixing gold-coloured bronze powder with pure turpentine. |
| 1851 D. Wilson Preh. Ann. (1863) I. ii. i. 319 The *Bronze Period. 1861 Sat. Rev. 7 Sept. 253 Belonging to the earliest or archaic bronze period. |
| 1846 Print. Appar. Amateurs 47 The *bronze powder is then applied to each impression. |
| 1880 Black White Wings xx, A strange *bronze-purple gloom. |
| 1841 Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 330 The guilds of tradesmen in Rome..comprehended the goldsmiths, the *bronzesmiths, the carpenters. |
| 1859 H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xxvi. (D.) You've no more fight in you than a *bronsewing. |
| 1835 T. L. Mitchell Jrnl. 10 Aug. in 3 Expeds. E. Australia (1838) I. 305 The *bronze-wing pigeon was..the most numerous of that kind of bird. 1884 Bronze-wing pigeon [see pigeon n. 2 b]. 1936 F. Clune Roaming round Darling xvii. 162 There seemed an unlimited supply of bronze-wing and top-knot pigeons. 1961 Coast to Coast 1959–60 60 A bronze-wing pigeon, lurking in the fine sand, whirred away from almost under my feet. |
| 1832 in Bischoff Van Diemen's Land ii. 31 The pigeons are by far the most beautiful birds in the island; they are called *bronze winged pigeons. 1852 Mundy Antipodes xviii, I killed..a few bronzed-winged pigeons. 1897 Daily News 24 May 9/4 A pair of Smith's partridge bronze-winged pigeons (Geophaps Smithi) from Northern Queensland. 1927 M. M. Bennett Christison vii. 72 A bronzewinged pigeon flew past him. |
▪ II. bronze, v. (
brɒnz)
[f. prec. n.; or a. F. bronzer, 16th c. in Littré.] 1. trans. To give a bronze-like surface or appearance to (metal, wood, etc.) by any mechanical or chemical process.
| 1645 Evelyn Mem. (1857) I. 196 Figures in plaster and pasteboard, which so resemble copper that..they cannot be distinguished, he has so rare an art of bronzing them. a 1852 Moore K. Crack vi. 2 Mending their legs and new bronzing their faces. 1846 G. Wright Cream Sci. Knowl. 61 The art of bronzing consists in painting the substance to be bronzed of a dark-green colour, and then rubbing the prominences with bronze-coloured dust. |
2. fig. To render unfeeling or shameless; to harden, to ‘steel’.
| 1726 D'Anvers Craftsm. xvi. (ed. 3) 137 His face was bronzed over with a glare of confidence. 1742 Young Nt. Th. v. 44 Art, cursed art! wipes off th' indebted blush From nature's cheek, and bronzes ev'ry shame. 1830 Fraser's Mag. I. 686 Habituation to these distressing calumnies has at length bronzed my feelings. |
3. To make like bronze in colour; to brown.
| 1792 Rogers Pleas. Mem. 51 The bald veteran..richly bronz'd by many a summer sun. 1863 Longfellow Way-side Inn Prel. 54 The firelight..bronzed the rafters overhead. |
† 4. To impose upon, cheat.
Obs. slang.| 1817 Blackw. Mag. I. 137 Beware that you are not ‘bronzed’; take care that what you publish is authentic. |
5. intr. To become like bronze, to turn brown.