bronze

Pluralbronzes (some meanings)

Formsbronzes, bronzing, bronzed

1. 1
   metalnoununcountable

   An alloy of copper, natural or man-made, usually combined with tin but also with one or more other metals.

   Early metalworkers learned to make bronze by melting copper together with tin.

   The foundry pours molten bronze into sand molds to cast ship propellers.

   Note

   Matthew Prior is the first English writer known to use it, in a list of little things ("a print, a bronze, a flower, a root") where it already names an object, as a bronze sculpture does. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Prior wrote the quoted list, where bronze denotes an object. The line occurs in Alma, Canto III; flower modernizes Flow'r. eighteenthcenturypoetry.org
2. 2
   third-place medalnouncountable or uncountable

   Third place in a competition, or the medal awarded for finishing third.

   He took bronze in the 400 meters, just behind the silver medalist.

   The team lost its semifinal but came back the next day to win the bronze.

   UsageAs a place, often without an article: took bronze. As a medal: won the bronze, two bronzes.

3. 3
   made of alloyadjective

   Made of the metal bronze.

   Visitors rub the bronze plaque until its letters shine.

   Ancient smiths made bronze swords and spearheads long before iron came into use.

4. 4
   copper-coloredadjective

   Having a reddish-brown color like that of bronze, especially of skin tanned by the sun.

   He came back from two weeks of sailing with bronze, sun-tanned shoulders.

   Bronze chrysanthemums filled the planters along the front walk.

   Similarcoppery, copper, russet, tanned

5. 5
   the colornouncountable or uncountable

   A reddish-brown color, the color of the metal bronze.

   By late fall the oak leaves had faded to a dull bronze.

   The sedan comes in three colors: silver, black, and a deep metallic bronze.

   Similarcopper

6. 6
   artworknouncountable

   A sculpture or other work of art made of bronze.

   The auction's top lot was a Renaissance bronze of a rearing horse.

   Collectors prize his later bronzes for their fine surface detail.

7. 7
   turn brownverbtransitive

   To give something a bronze color, or (of skin) to become tanned from the sun.

   A month of sailing had bronzed his shoulders and bleached his hair.

   Late afternoon light can bronze the canyon walls in the minutes before sunset.

   Similartan, brown

   Note

   In DuBose Heyward's Porgy (1925) it is not skin but a forest's ceiling of woven leaves that the low sun bronzes. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • DuBose Heyward wrote Porgy. gutenberg.org
   • Porgy was first published in 1925. charlestonlibrarysociety.omeka.net
   • The novel describes the low sun's rays bronzing the forest's ceiling of woven leaves. gutenberg.org
8. 8
   coat (metal)verbtransitive

   To coat something with a thin layer of bronze.

   Many parents have a baby's first shoes bronzed as a keepsake.

   The workshop will bronze almost any small object, from car keys to teaspoons.

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