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Definition of brave adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

brave

adjective
 
/breɪv/
 
/breɪv/
(comparative braver, superlative bravest)
Idioms
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  1. (of a person) willing to do things that are difficult, dangerous or painful; not afraid synonym courageous
    • brave men and women
    • Be brave!
    • I wasn't brave enough to tell her what I thought of her.
    • Desperation had made me brave.
    • She has been incredibly brave.
    Extra Examples
    • He was as brave as a lion on the rugby field.
    • Can't some brave soul save her from this fate?
    Topics Personal qualitiesb1
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs
    • be
    • feel
    • seem
    adverb
    • extremely
    • fairly
    • very
    See full entry
  2. (of an action) requiring or showing courage
    • She took the brave decision to start her own business.
    • She died after a brave fight against cancer.
    • He felt homesick, but made a brave attempt to appear cheerful.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs
    • be
    • feel
    • seem
    adverb
    • extremely
    • fairly
    • very
    See full entry
  3. brave new (sometimes ironic) new in an impressive way
    • a vision of a brave new Britain
  4. Word Originlate 15th cent.: from French, from Italian bravo ‘bold’ or Spanish bravo ‘courageous, untamed, savage’, based on Latin barbarus from Greek barbaros ‘foreign’.
Idioms
(a) brave new world
  1. a situation or society that changes in a way that is meant to improve people’s lives but is often a source of extra problems
    • the brave new world of technology
    • the architects' vision of a brave new world of pristine concrete
put on a brave face | put a brave face on something
  1. to pretend that you feel confident and happy when you do not
    • I had to put on a brave face and try to show him that I wasn’t worried.
    • He put a brave face on his illness.
See brave in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee brave in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
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adjective
 
 
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