''bravo'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''bravo'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260727004347-00-⌔

bravo - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Noun

bravo (plural bravos or bravoes or bravi)

• A hired soldier; an assassin; a desperado.
  • ✤ As for Rochester, he had not genius enough to enter the lists with Dryden, so he fell upon another method of revenge; and meanly hired bravoes to assault him.¹
  • ✤ Men have before hired bravos to transact their crimes, while their own person and reputation sat under shelter.²
  • ✤ “Why should I fight the King of England’s bravoes?” inquired Acour in a languid voice of those who stood about him, a question at which they laughed.³
  • ✤ Because the headache will always be there, a weapon that never wears out and is as deadly as the bravo ’s rapier or Lucrezia’s poison vial.⁴
• A shout of “bravo!”
  • ✤ There was a roar of bravoes rang through the house; Pen bellowing with the loudest.⁵
• (international standards, plural “bravos”) Alternative letter-case form of Bravo from the NATO/ICAO Phonetic Alphabet.

Interjection

bravo!

• Used to express acclaim, especially to a performer.
  • ✤ Synonyms: see Thesaurus: well done
  • ✤ * Bravo, you have done a brilliant job!*

Verb

bravo (third-person singular simple presentbravos or bravoes, present participle bravoing, simple past and past participle bravoed)

• To cheer or applaud, especially by saying bravo!
  • ✤ “And my Sunbeam was bravoed, and encored, and crowned with flowers, was she not?”⁶
  • ✤ Together they had bravoed the great tragedians, and together hopelessly worshipped the beautiful faces, enskied and sainted, of famous actresses.⁷

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian bravo. Doublet of brave.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA: /ˈbɹɑvoʊ/, /bɹɑˈvoʊ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈbɹɑːvəʊ/, /bɹɑːˈvəʊ/
• Rhymes: -ɑːvəʊ, Rhymes: -əʊ
• Audio (Canada): 🔊

Printed 2026-07-27.

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Footnotes

1. 1753, Theophilus Cibber, The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) ‎${}^{[4]}$: ↩

2. 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 117: ↩

3. 1911, H. Rider Haggard, Red Eve ‎${}^{[5]}$: ↩

4. 1953, Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye, Penguin, published 2010, page 104: ↩

5. 1907, Kate Dickinson Sweetser, Boys and girls from Thackeray ‎${}^{[6]}$: ↩

6. 1910, May Agnes Fleming, The Baronet’s Bride ‎${}^{[7]}$: ↩

7. 1899, Richard Le Gallienne, Young Lives ‎${}^{[8]}$: ↩

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Secondary

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