# brand

Pronunciation: say "BRAND" /bɹænd/

## Noun

1. A particular product, service, or company known by its own name, together with the name, logo, and identity that set it apart from others.
   - Simple: The name a company uses for its products, and the products themselves, like a brand of coffee.
   - _She buys only one brand of coffee and refuses all substitutes._
   - _Several budget brands now compete with the established names._
3. The way a person or group is publicly seen, combining reputation with a recognizable signature style.
   - Simple: The public image and usual style of a person or group.
   - _Her brand as a fearless reporter opened doors across the industry._
   - _The team rebuilt its brand after years of scandal._
4. A particular type or variety of something, or a distinctive style or manner.
   - Simple: A certain type or style of something.
   - _Her brand of leadership relies on quiet persuasion rather than orders._
   - _The film offers a strange brand of comedy that divides audiences._
5. A mark or scar burned in with a hot iron, as on cattle to show ownership or on a cask to identify its contents.
   - Simple: A mark burned into an animal's skin with a hot iron to show who owns it.
   - _The brand on the steer's flank identified its owner instantly._
   - _Each cask bore a brand showing what it held._
8. A mark of disgrace or lasting stigma attached to a person or group.
   - Simple: A lasting mark of shame on someone's name.
   - _The conviction was a brand she could never escape._
   - _Defeat left a brand of shame on the whole regiment._
10. An iron tool that is heated and used to burn an identifying mark into livestock or other property.
   - Simple: A hot iron tool used to burn a mark into an animal's skin.
   - _The ranch hands kept several brands hanging by the corral gate._
   - _He pressed the heated brand against the steer's flank._

## Verb

2. To associate a product or service with a name, logo, and related images.
   - Simple: To give a product a name, logo, and look so people know it.
   - _The agency will brand the startup as the affordable choice._
   - _They branded the cereal with a cartoon mascot to attract children._
6. To burn a permanent mark into the skin of an animal or person with a hot iron, as on cattle to show ownership or formerly on criminals.
   - Simple: To burn a mark into an animal's or a person's skin with a hot iron.
   - _Ranchers brand their herds to deter theft._
   - _The hands branded forty steers before noon._
7. To label someone with a damaging name or reputation that is hard to shake off.
   - Simple: To call someone or something by a bad name that is hard to lose, often unfairly.
   - _Critics branded the policy a failure within weeks._
   - _Society is quick to brand outsiders as troublemakers._
9. To make a lasting, unforgettable impression on someone's memory or senses.
   - Simple: To stick so firmly in someone's memory that it cannot be forgotten.
   - _The horrors he witnessed in the war branded themselves on his mind._
   - _Vivid images of the disaster brand themselves into the viewer's memory._

## Noun

11. A piece of burning wood or peat, or a glowing cinder, taken from or remaining in a fire. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A burning or glowing piece of wood or coal pulled from a fire.
   - _He stirred the embers and lifted a brand to relight his pipe._
   - _A few brands still glowed among the ashes at dawn._
12. A flame; a tongue of fire. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A flame, or a tongue of burning fire.
13. A widespread, destructive fire; a conflagration. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A large, destructive fire that spreads widely.
14. A sword carried as a weapon, especially in heroic and poetic writing. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: A sword used as a weapon for fighting.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A torch used to send signals over a distance.
- (noun) A minute fungus that produces a scorched or burnt appearance on plants.
- (verb) To give off intense heat; to burn.

## Origin

Old English brand meant "fire, flame, burning, torch, sword" and became Middle English brand. Before that it came through Proto-West Germanic and Proto-Germanic, probably from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to burn" or "bubble forth." Dutch brand, German Brand, and Swedish brand ("blaze, fire") are related.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/brand (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).