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| Colorful English! | ||||
| Word or Phrase: | Part of Speech: | Idiom or General?: | Usage? | Restricted? |
| brown | 1)verb, transitive 2)verb, intransitive 3) noun 4) noun/adjective | all general | fairly common | 1, 2, and 3, No 4) depending on usage, in reference to a person with brown skin, this may or may not be offensive |
| Meaning: | ||||
| 1) to make brown,
as in cooking meat 2) to become brown, as in getting a sun tan, meat being cooked, or fruit turning bad 3) any of the colors between red and yellow 4) a brown-skinned person | ||||
| Example(s): | ||||
| 1) When cooking
a pot roast, it is important to brown it before
adding the cooking liquid. 2) Last summer, I went to Myconos, off the coast of Greece, where I had hoped to brown nicely. I was very disappointed when, as usual, I got burned. 3) In electronics, the value of brown in the resistor color code is 1. 4) In Japan, you see very few brown people. | ||||
| Notes: 1) Brown, brownish and browny are also adjectives. 2) Depending on circumstances, this could be a general description of a person with brown skin, or an offensive racial slur. If in doubt, use with caution. | ||||