brown

a. [ Compar. Browner superl. Brownest. ] [ OE. brun, broun, AS. br&unr_;n; akin to D. bruin, OHG. br&unr_;n, Icel. br&unr_;nn, Sw. brun, Dan. bruun, G. braun, Lith. brunas, Skr. babhru. √93, 253. Cf. Bruin, Beaver, Burnish, Brunette. ] Of a dark color, of various shades between black and red or yellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cheeks brown as the oak leaves. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

Brown Bess, the old regulation flintlock smoothbore musket, with bronzed barrel, formerly used in the British army. --
Brown bread (a) Dark colored bread; esp. a kind made of unbolted wheat flour, sometimes called in the United States Graham bread. “He would mouth with a beggar though she smelt brown bread and garlic.” Shak. (b) Dark colored bread made of rye meal and Indian meal, or of wheat and rye or Indian; rye and Indian bread. [ U.S. ] --
Brown coal, wood coal. See Lignite. --
Brown hematite or
Brown iron ore (Min.), the hydrous iron oxide, limonite, which has a brown streak. See Limonite. --
Brown holland. See under Holland. --
Brown paper, dark colored paper, esp. coarse wrapping paper, made of unbleached materials. --
Brown spar (Min.), a ferruginous variety of dolomite, in part identical with ankerite. --
Brown stone. See Brownstone. --
Brown stout, a strong kind of porter or malt liquor. --
Brown study, a state of mental abstraction or serious reverie. W. Irving. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To become brown. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Browned p. pr. & vb. n. Browning. ] 1. To make brown or dusky. [ 1913 Webster ]

A trembling twilight o'er welkin moves,
Browns the dim void and darkens deep the groves. Barlow. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To make brown by scorching slightly; as, to brown meat or flour. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To give a bright brown color to, as to gun barrels, by forming a thin coat of oxide on their surface. Ure. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) The dowitcher or red-breasted snipe. See Dowitcher. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Brown + bill cutting tool. ] A bill or halberd of the 16th and 17th centuries. See 4th Bill. [ 1913 Webster ]

Many time, but for a sallet, my brainpan had been cleft with a brown bill. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The black, or as it is sometimes called, the brown bill, was a kind of halberd, the cutting part hooked like a woodman's bill, from the back of which projected a spike, and another from the head. Grose. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. having a tan color from exposure to the sun; -- of skin color.
Syn. -- suntanned, tanned. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Pertaining to Dr. Robert Brown, who first demonstrated (about 1827) the commonness of the motion described below. [ 1913 Webster ]

Brownian motion,
Brownian movement, the peculiar, rapid, vibratory movement exhibited by the microscopic particles of substances when suspended in water or other fluids. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ So called from its supposed tawny or swarthy color. ] An imaginary good-natured spirit, who was supposed often to perform important services around the house by night, such as thrashing, churning, sweeping. [ Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]