bronzed

1. 1
   adjective

   Of skin, tanned to a darker shade by exposure to the sun.

   The bronzed farmhands came in from the fields for a late lunch.

   She came back from the hiking trip more bronzed than anyone in the office.

   Similartanned, suntanned, brown

   Oppositepale, pallid

   Note

   The word describes skin but is readily said of the whole person: Harriet W. Daly, writing in 1887 of pioneering life in the Northern Territory, calls her brother a handsome, sturdy, bronzed boy of eight. It grades like any ordinary adjective, more bronzed and most bronzed, so a returning hiker can be more bronzed than anyone in the office.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of bronze.

   Her parents bronzed her first pair of baby shoes and kept them on the mantel.

   By the end of July the lifeguards had bronzed to a deep brown.

   Note

   One form does both jobs because bronze is a regular verb: the sun bronzed his face; the shoes were bronzed. It works with an object or without one, so a face is bronzed by the sun while lifeguards simply bronze over a summer, and it can even mean taking third place. Before a noun the participle often settles into the sun-tanned adjective.

3. 3
   adjective

   Having a coating of bronze over its surface.

   The bronzed steel railings had begun to rust where the coating was chipped.

   He hung his diploma in a bronzed frame above the desk.

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