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Brass vs Pinchbeck - What's the difference?

brass | pinchbeck |

As nouns the difference between brass and pinchbeck

is that brass is a metallic alloy of copper and zinc used in many industrial and plumbing applications while pinchbeck is an alloy of copper and zinc once used as imitation gold for cheap jewelry.

As adjectives the difference between brass and pinchbeck

is that brass is of the colour of brass while pinchbeck is made of pinchbeck.

brass

English

(wikipedia brass)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Noun

(en-noun)
  • (uncountable) A metallic alloy of copper and zinc used in many industrial and plumbing applications.
  • (countable, music) A class of wind instruments, usually made of metal (such as brass), that use vibrations of the player's lips to produce sound.
  • Spent shell casings (usually made of brass); the part of the cartridge left over after bullets have been fired.
  • (uncountable) The colour of brass.
  • (uncountable, used as a singular or plural noun, military) High-ranking officers.
    • The brass are not going to like this.
    The brass is not going to like this.
  • (uncountable, informal) A brave or foolhardy attitude.
    • You've got a lot of brass telling me to do that!
  • (slang, dated) Money.
  • Inferior composition.
    • Derived terms
    * bold as brass * brass balls * brass band * brassboard * brass hat * brass in pocket * brass instrument * brass knuckles * brass monkey * brass nail * brass neck * brass rat * brass ring * brass section * brass tacks * brassbound * brass-collar * brassed off * brass-rubbing * brassware * brasswind * brassy * calamine brass * high brass * get down to brass tacks * nonbrass * not have a brass farthing * top brass

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of the colour of brass.
  • (informal) Impertinent, bold: brazen.
  • * 1996 May 24, 2:00 am, Sherman Simpson, Want license key for AGENT FOR WINDOWS95 , alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent:
    • Maybe (probably so), but it's rare someone is brass enough to post a msg for all to see asking for a software key, that the vast majority have paid for in support of the development effort.
  • * 2000 Aug 18, 2:00 am, David Ryan, strangest bid retraction /illegal lottery NOT , rec.collecting.coins:
    • After cornering the dutch auction, the seller was brass enough to send him the whole lot without one.
  • * 2000 Aug 19, 3:00 am, n4mwd, for RMB , alt.support.anxiety-panic:
    • Try to keep in mind that not all of his converts are brass enough to challenge the benzo pushers in this group, [...]
  • (slang) Bad, annoying; as wordplay applied especially to brass instruments .
  • * 1888 , Mr. & Mrs. Bancroft on and off the stage: written by themselves , volume 1, page 90:
    • Grindoff, the miller, 'and the leader of a very brass band of most unpopular performers, with a thorough base accompaniment of at least fifty vices,' was played by Miss Saunders.
  • * 1900 , The Training of Seamen'', published in ''The Saturday Review , 3 November 1900, volume 90, number 2349, page 556:
    • I must confess that to me there is something almost pathetic in the sight of a body of bluejackets improving their muscles on the quarter deck by bar-bell exercise, accompanied by a brass — a very brass — band, [...]
  • * 1908 , The Smith Family'', published in ''Punch'', March 4 1908, bound in ''Punch vol. CXXXIV , page 168:
    • Mr. REGINALD SMITH, KC, the publisher, followed, but he had hardly begun his very interesting remarks when a procession headed by a very brass band entered Smithfield from the west, and approached the platform.
  • * 1937 , Blair Niles, A journey in time: Peruvian pageant , page 166:
    • There are soldiers, policemen, priests and friars, as well as a motley mass of women, children, babies and dogs, and upon special occasions a very brass band.
  • * Philippine Magazine , volume 6, page 27: (rfdate)
    • The padre in my neighborhood — Santa Ana — was having some kind of a fiesta, and had hired a very brass band. This band kept up its martial airs for hours and hours after I got home, with grand finales — or what each time I hoped would be the grand finale, every five minutes.
  • Of inferior composition.
  • *
    • Quotations
    * 1869 , Calendar of State Papers, domestic series, of the reign of Charles I, 1637-1638 , edited by John Bruce, page 147: *: At the Council board, I hope to charge him with that he cannot answer, and yet I know his face is brass enough. * 1872 , Elsie Leigh Whittlesey, Helen Ethinger: or, Not Exactly Right , page 154: *: [...] he continued in the same insulting strain. "If you were not quite brass , you would know it is not proper to be making promises you dare not tell of." * 2011 , Paul Christopher, The Templar Conspiracy : *: It was a show of very large and very brass cojones, [...]

    Related terms

    * braze * brazen * brazier

    Etymology 2

    By ellipsis

    Noun

    (-)
  • (uncountable, slang) Brass in pocket; money.
  • (countable, slang) A brass nail; a prostitute.

    • Adjective

    (head)
  • (slang) Brass monkey; cold.

    • See also

    * althorn * chalcography * cornet * euphonium * flugelhorn * French horn * mellophone * Muntz metal * saxhorn * sousaphone * trombone * trumpet * tuba * ----

    pinchbeck

    English

    Noun

    (-)
  • An alloy of copper and zinc once used as imitation gold for cheap jewelry.

    • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Made of pinchbeck.
  • Sham; spurious, artificial; being a cheap substitution; only superficially attractive.
  • * 1860 , :
    • Where, in these pinchbeck days, can we hope to find the old agricultural virtue in all its purity?
  • * 1912 , Esther Willard Bates, Pageants and Pageantry , page 237,
    • Vain Delight must have lost her freshness, and be older and more pinchbeck .
  • * 1915 , , Note to the First Edition,
    • The second point on which I wish to offer a remark is the existence (in the novel) of a person named Schomberg.
    That I believe him to be true goes without saying. I am not likely to offer pinchbeck wares to my public consciously.
  • * 1996 , John M. Sherwig, Guineas and Gunpowder: British Foreign Aid In the Wars with France, 1793-1815 , page 180,
    • Coming at a time when Alexander was trying desperately to halt Napoleon's advance, the British response to his call for help appeared even more pinchbeck than it was.
  • * 2006 , , North Face of Soho , Picador 2007, p. 183:
    • Anyway, at least I had created the pinchbeck crown in which Dai could place his jewel.