Definition of "brass"

I don't want to keep the brass waiting, Chief.

2004 November 9, Bungie, Halo 2, v1.0, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: The Armory

At the Council board, I hope to charge him with that he cannot answer, and yet I know his face is brass enough.

1869, John Bruce, editor, Calendar of State Papers, domestic series, of the reign of Charles I, 1637-1638, page 147

[...] 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."

1872, Elsie Leigh Whittlesey, Helen Ethinger: or, Not Exactly Right, page 154

It was a show of very large and very brass cojones, [...]

2011, Paul Christopher, The Templar Conspiracy

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.

1996 May 24, 2:00 am, Sherman Simpson, Want license key for AGENT FOR WINDOWS95, alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent

After cornering the dutch auction, the seller was brass enough to send him the whole lot without one.

2000 Aug 18, 2:00 am, David Ryan, strangest bid retraction /illegal lottery NOT, rec.collecting.coins

Try to keep in mind that not all of his converts are brass enough to challenge the benzo pushers in this group, [...]

2000 Aug 19, 3:00 am, n4mwd, for RMB, alt.support.anxiety-panic

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.

1888, Mr. & Mrs. Bancroft on and off the stage: written by themselves, volume 1, page 90

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, [...]

1900 November 3, “The Training of Seamen”, in The Saturday Review, volume 90, number 2349, page 556

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.

1908, The Smith Family, published in Punch, March 4 1908, bound in Punch vol. CXXXIV, page 168

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.

1937, Blair Niles, A journey in time: Peruvian pageant, page 166

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.

1929, Philippine Magazine, volume 6, page 27

As Honest Plush Brannon then, Mr. Beery is one of San Francisco's fancier con men and hence more brass than plush

1939, The New York times film reviews, volume 3

Richard didn't want the man on the corner to go up and fuck one of the brasses.

1996, Will Self, The Sweet Smell of Psychosis, Bloomsbury, published 2011, page 2