Library / English Dictionary

BROWNING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cooking to a brown crispiness over a fire or on a grill

Example:

proper toasting should brown both sides of a piece of bread

Synonyms:

browning; toasting

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("browning" is a kind of...):

cookery; cooking; preparation (the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat)

Sense 2

Meaning:

English poet best remembered for love sonnets written to her husband Robert Browning (1806-1861)

Synonyms:

Browning; Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

poet (a writer of poems (the term is usually reserved for writers of good poetry))

Sense 3

Meaning:

English poet and husband of Elizabeth Barrett Browning noted for his dramatic monologues (1812-1889)

Synonyms:

Browning; Robert Browning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

poet (a writer of poems (the term is usually reserved for writers of good poetry))

Sense 4

Meaning:

United States inventor of firearms (especially automatic pistols and repeating rifles and a machine gun called the Peacemaker) (1855-1926)

Synonyms:

Browning; John M. Browning; John Moses Browning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Instance hypernyms:

artificer; discoverer; inventor (someone who is the first to think of or make something)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

-ing form of the verb brown

Credits

 Context examples: 

She compared Tennyson, and Browning, and her favorite prose masters with him, and to his hopeless discredit.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

“I nearly met you, once, in Philadelphia, some Browning affair or other—you were to lecture, you know. My train was four hours late.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The browning of the forest canopy is consistent with observed decreases in the amount of water available to plants, whether that is in the form of rainfall, water stored in the ground, water in near-surface soils, or water within the vegetation.

(NASA finds drought may take toll on Congo rainforest, NASA)

Martin placed the Swinburne and Browning on the chair, took off his coat, and sat down on the bed.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

In what could have been no less than an ecstasy, I left my post at the head of the companion-way and started along the deck, murmuring to myself those beautiful lines of Mrs. Browning:

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He took the Browning and the Swinburne from the chair and kissed them.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He read of sickly Elizabeth Barrett, who for years had not placed her feet upon the ground, until that day of flame when she eloped with Browning and stood upright, upon the earth, under the open sky; and what Browning had done for her, Martin decided he could do for Ruth.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And among the hills, on their favorite knoll, Martin and Ruth sat side by side, their heads bent over the same pages, he reading aloud from the love-sonnets of the woman who had loved Browning as it is given to few men to be loved.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

They talked first of the borrowed books, of the Swinburne he was devoted to, and of the Browning he did not understand; and she led the conversation on from subject to subject, while she pondered the problem of how she could be of help to him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

But the impression of that fleeting glimpse lingered, and when the time came for him to beat a stumbling retreat and go, she lent him the volume of Swinburne, and another of Browning—she was studying Browning in one of her English courses.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)