DictionaryAI

brown

BROWN/bɹaʊn/

Noun pluralbrowns

Verbbrowns, browning, browned

17 meanings of brown

Practice

  1. 1
    color nameadjective
    Having a color like that of chocolate, coffee, or wood.

    The hikers followed a brown dirt path through the woods.

    Her brown leather boots were scuffed from the long trip.

    UsageBoth browner, brownest and more brown, most brown are correct. Shades come first: light brown, dark brown, reddish-brown.

  2. 2
    color namenouncountable or uncountable
    A color resembling that of chocolate or coffee.

    The designer chose a warm brown for the living room walls.

    Deep browns and oranges dominated the painter's fall palette.

    UsageDressed in brown for the color in general; browns for shades: browns and greens.

    Note

    The color word the rest of the family grows from. Old English brūn meant "dark" and "dusky" as well as "brown," and bruin is the same word reached by another route.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  3. 3
    fry (cooking)verbtransitive
    To cook food until its surface develops a brown color.

    Brown the chicken thighs on both sides before you pour in the stock.

    He browned the flour and butter to form the base of the sauce.

    UsageUsually an instruction with the food as object: brown the meat, brown the onions in butter.

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    Note

    The Victorian cookbook Indian Cookery "Local" for Young Housekeepers browns an onion in ghee, then browns the spices "till it smells pleasantly." Smell as well as color tells the cook when to stop. Browned butter and browned flour belong to this sense.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Indian Cookery "Local" for Young Housekeepers is a Victorian cookbook. archive.org
    • The cookbook instructs the cook to brown an onion in ghee, then brown the curry spices until they smell pleasant, using smell as a cooking cue. archive.org
  4. 4
    turn darkerverbintransitive
    To become brown, or to make something brown, as when fruit darkens in air or skin tans in the sun.

    Sliced avocados brown quickly when exposed to air.

    The grass had begun to brown under the summer heat.

    UsageOften with until: fry the onions until they brown. Cut fruit browns in the air.

    Note

    Milk left too long in the microwave browns and bubbles over. When the cook acts on the food, the verb takes an object instead, as in the kitchen instruction. Michael Pollan's chicken "browning nicely" shows the progressive form at work.

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • Michael Pollan describes a chicken as "browning nicely" in The Omnivore's Dilemma. en.wiktionary.org
  5. 5
    person of coloradjective
    Relating to people with brown skin, such as Latino, South Asian, Middle Eastern, or Pacific Islander people, often as an identity label.

    The policy disproportionately affected brown communities.

    She advocates for brown and indigenous voices in publishing.

    Note

    The loosest use, close to a synonym for of color and just as broad. In US speech it can gather Latino, South Asian, Middle Eastern and other groups into one word. That breadth is convenient in political talk and blurry everywhere else. When precision matters, name the group. When solidarity is the point, as in brown communities, the vagueness is the purpose.

  6. 6
    troutnouncolloquialcountable or uncountable
    A freshwater fish of the species Salmo trutta, the brown trout.

    She hooked a two-pound brown on her first cast.

    Anglers prize the wild browns of these chalk streams.

Practice

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Origin

Old English brūn ("brown, dark, dusky") became Middle English broun. It traces back to Proto-Germanic *brūnaz and probably, in the end, to a Proto-Indo-European root. Dutch bruin, German braun, and Latin brunneus ("brown") are related.

Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 6 facts