Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Articles or finishings of brass, as the small mountings or trimmings about a boiler or machine.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He met them everywhere, at the wheel, on lookout, washing decks, polishing brass-work, running aloft, or tailing on to sheets and tackles half a dozen at a time.

    CHAPTER XXI 2010

  • And, as he rubbed the brass-work, he told himself under his breath: The old party's sure been through the mill.

    CHAPTER X 2010

  • First came two great gaudy engines, the Grizzly Bear and the White Fox, with their respective tenders loaded with logs of wood, the engines with great, solitary, reflecting lamps in front above the cow guards, a quantity of polished brass-work, comfortable glass houses, and well-stuffed seats for the engine-drivers.

    A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains 2007

  • When it came to scrubbing the steps and polishing the brass-work of the splendid stairs both needed to steel themselves, the mother against her timidity, the daughter against the shame at so public an exposure.

    Jennie Gerhardt 2004

  • There was a huge mirror with a massy frame of gilt brass-work, which was of Venetian manufacture, and must have been worth a considerable sum before it received the tremendous crack, which, traversing it from one corner to the other, bore the same proportion to the surface that the Nile bears to the map of Egypt.

    The Fortunes of Nigel 2004

  • Our car won; and I gained the station bell, a dignified piece of Damascus brass-work.

    Seven Pillars of Wisdom Thomas Edward 2003

  • Wilkins went to the kitchen, where he had been polishing some Oriental brass-work, and resumed his task.

    The Mystery of the Whispering Mummy Arthur, Robert 1965

  • The ubiquitous Chinaman has found a firm footing in the northerly port of Celebes, and the splendidly-carved dragons of a stately temple, rich in ornaments of green jade, blue porcelain, and elaborate brass-work, denote the important status of the wealthy community.

    Through the Malay Archipelago Emily Richings

  • Brown Siamese, in many-coloured scarves and turbans gleaming with gold thread, chaffer and bargain at open stalls with blue-robed Chinamen, and the bronze figures of slim Malays, brightened by mere wisps of orange and scarlet added to Nature's durable suit, slip through the crowds, pausing before an emporium of polished brass-work, or a bamboo stall of teak wood carving.

    Through the Malay Archipelago Emily Richings

  • Gosport, beyond Priddy's Hard, amid a wealth of crimson and gold that nearly stretched up to the zenith, lighting up the spars of the ships and making their hulls glow again with a ruddy radiance while touching up the brass-work and metal about them with sparks of flame.

    Crown and Anchor Under the Pen'ant John B. [Illustrator] Greene

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