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brownish

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brown

[broun] noun, adjective, -er, -est, verb
–noun
1. a dark tertiary color with a yellowish or reddish hue.
2. a person whose skin has a dusky or light-brown pigmentation.
–adjective
3. of the color brown.
4. (of animals) having skin, fur, hair, or feathers of that color.
5. sunburned or tanned.
6. (of persons) having the skin naturally pigmented a brown color.
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)
7. to make or become brown.
8. to fry, sauté, or scorch slightly in cooking: to brown onions before adding them to the stew. The potatoes browned in the pan.
9. brown out, to subject to a brownout: The power failure browned out the southern half of the state.
10. browned off, Slang. angry; fed up.
11. do it up brown, Informal. to do thoroughly: When they entertain, they really do it up brown.

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME; OE brūn; c. D bruin, G braun, ON brūnn; akin to Lith brúnas brown


brownish, browny, adjective
brownness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To brownish
brown   (broun)   
n.  Any of a group of colors between red and yellow in hue that are medium to low in lightness and low to moderate in saturation.
adj.   brown·er, brown·est
  1. Of the color brown.

    1. Having a brownish or dark skin color.

    2. Often Offensive Of or being a person of nonwhite origin.

  2. Deeply suntanned.

tr. & intr.v.   browned, brown·ing, browns
  1. To make or become brown.

  2. To cook until brown.

Phrasal Verb(s):
brown off Chiefly British Slang To make angry or irritated.

[Middle English, from Old English brūn; see bher-2 in Indo-European roots.]
brown'ish adj., brown'ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

brown 
O.E. brun "dark," only developing a definite color sense 13c., from P.Gmc. *brunaz, from PIE *bher- "shining, brown" (cf. Lith. beras "brown"), related to *bheros "dark animal" (cf. beaver, bear, and Gk. phrynos "toad," lit. "the brown animal"). The O.E. word also had a sense of "brightness, shining," now preserved only in burnish. The Gmc. word was adopted into Romantic (cf. M.L. brunus, It., Sp. bruno, Fr. brun). Colloquial brown-nose (1939) is "from the implication that servility is tantamount to having one's nose in the anus of the person from whom advancement is sought" [Webster, 1961]. Brown Bess, slang name for old British Army flintlock musket, first recorded 1785.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Brown (broun), Michael. Born 1941.

American geneticist. He shared a 1985 Nobel Prize for discoveries related to cholesterol metabolism.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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