browns

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of brown.

   The decorator chose warm browns for the living room walls.

   Earthy browns dominated the painter's autumn palette.

   Note

   A plural that changes what the color word counts. As a mass noun, brown names the color itself. In the plural it counts shades, as in warm browns and earthy browns, the way a painter or decorator speaks. The same plural serves the snooker balls, brown horses and the old slang copper coins, but brown meaning heroin takes no plural. The spelling is shared with the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of brown.

   The chef browns the onions slowly to draw out their sweetness.

   Bright sun quickly browns the grass during a dry summer.

   Note

   One form, two directions. With an object it is causative: a cook browns the onions, and a gunsmith browns a barrel with a thin coat of oxide. Without an object, the subject itself turns brown, as when a leaf browns in autumn. Tanning works either way: the sun browns skin, and skin browns in the sun.

   A gunsmith browns the barrel to protect it from rust.

   Her skin browns quickly in the summer sun.

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