To face a difficult situation boldly or impudently. The verb (and adjective) “brazen” both mean “brass” (see also bold as brass). Classical mythology distinguished four ages of mankind—the Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron ages (described by Ovid)—and Thomas Heywood, a playwright (1572–1650), termed the third the Brazen Age, a period of war and violence. During the mid-sixteenth century the verb “to brazen” meant to act boldly. The precise modern expression was used by John Arbuthnot (“He would talk saucily, lye, and brazen it out”) in The History of John Bull (1712).