[a. F. brave-r to act the brave toward, etc., f. brave BRAVE.]
I. transitive.
1. To treat with bravado; to challenge, defy.
1546. St. Papers Hen. VIII., XI. 107. Leest the Frenchmen might take occasion … to have braved Your Majestie.
1590. Greene, Orl. Fur. (1599), 9. Ile beard and braue thee in thy proper towne.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 94. Braving them (if they were men) to come out.
1636. Heywood, in Ann. Dubrensia (1877), 69. Ossa and Pelion, that so brave the sky.
a. 1764. Lloyd, Actor, Poet. Wks. 1774, I. 12. Braving monarchs in his Saviour’s cause.
1884. Tennyson, Becket, 100. I must hence to brave The Pope, King Louis, and this turbulent priest.
† 2. To threaten, menace. Obs.
a. 1619. Bp. Cowper, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxix. 19. He braved him with banishments.
3. To meet or face (danger) with bravery; to encounter, defy. (The ordinary current sense.)
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. xvii. 436. The adventurous Leander braved the passage of the flood.
1797. Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, i. Do not brave the utter darkness of these ruins.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, i. 4. Poverty induces them to brave danger.
a. 1876. J. H. Newman, Hist. Sk., I. IV. iv. 409. They braved the severe weather of that climate.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 4 Jan., 2/1. The school braves successfully the ordeal of annual inspection.
† 4. To make brave, embolden, encourage. Obs.
a. 1593. H. Smith, Wks. (1866–7), I. 172. We may see … how a gay coat … or a gold ring, can brave a man’s mind.
† 5. To make splendid; to deck out, adorn. Obs.
1590. Exhort. Her Maj. Subj., in Harl. Misc., I. 172. Brave not yourselves in gold, silk, and silver.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 279. He [the sun] should haue brau’d the East an houre ago. Ibid. (1596), Tam. Shr., IV. iii. 125. Thou [the tailor] hast brau’d manie men.
1625. Bacon, Love, Ess. (Arb.), 445. How it [love] braves, the Nature, and value of things.
† 6. To boast; ‘to carry a boasting appearance of’ J. To brave out: to display boastfully, show off. To brave oneself: to boast or pride oneself in.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 44 b. Points, which you seeme specially to have called out, that in them you might brave out ye nimblenes of your witte, and eloquence of toung.
1607–13. Bacon, Ess., Seditions & Tr. (Arb.), 411 (J.). Both particular Persons, and Factions, are apt enough to flatter themselues, or, at least, to braue that, which they beleeue not.
1644–52. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., VII. i. (1821), 309. They rather proudly braved themselves in their knowledge of the Deity, [etc.].
II. intransitive (and const. to brave it).
† 7. To boast, glory, vaunt. To brave it: to swagger, act the bravo. Obs.
1549. Dk. Somerset, in Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. I. xxii. 180. The Frenchmen … will brave much of this.
1597. J. Payne, Royal Exch., 14. These fellows wyll brave yt out, how slender so ever they be within.
1613. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. v. (1772), II. 188. Nevermore let holy Dee O’re other rivers braue.
1627. Bp. Hall, Psalmes Met., x. 3. The wicked braues and boasts In his vile and outragious thought.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., III. III. (1852), 542. That peace might brave it among you.
1817. Wilberforce, in Parl. Deb., 1693. Braving about the liberties of his country.
† 8. intr. To dress splendidly, to make a gay show; freq. also to brave it. Obs.
1583. T. Watson, Poems (Arb.), 60. Thou glasse, wherein my Dame hath such delight, As when she braues, then most on thee to gaze.
1592. Daniel, Compl. Rosamond (1717), 52. And live in Pomp to brave among the Best.
a. 1632. Bp. M. Smyth, Serm., 130. To strowt it, and to stout it, and to braue it in costly apparell.
9. To act bravely, to be brave. rare.
1884. W. C. Smith, Kildrostan, I. ii. 265. Haunted With the young craving For doing and braving In the world’s battle.
