brass hat

See also: brasshat

English

Alternative forms

• brasshat

Etymology

From the military brass insignia on a service hat.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

brass hat (plural brass hats)

1. (military, slang, metonymically) A high-ranking officer.
   • 1982, Countdown begins for Space Shuttle, The New York Times:

     "American brass hats make no secret that they regard outer space as a potential theater of military operations," it said.

   • 2006, Andrew Roth, Obituary: Lord Monro of Langholm, The Guardian:

     He raised his first storm in January 1967 when, as leader of the "Save the Argylls" campaign, he claimed the brass hats had driven the regiment's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Colin "Mad Mitch" Mitchell, into resignation.

   • 2011, Andrew Roth, Gaddafi faces endgame as he bribes civilians to fight for him, The Independent:

     This being Libya, there were conflicting signals yesterday – an army brass hat captured here, a counter-attack by Gaddafi forces there […]

   • 2023 May 15, Charlie Campbell, “The Voting in Thailand’s Election Is Finished, But the Politicking Is Just Beginning”, in Time‎^[1]:

     […] with particularly young Thais—including 3.3 million first-time voters—backing the upstart party’s bold pledges to weaken the political role of brass hats and amend the nation’s strict royal defamation law […]

Related terms

• brass-hatted

See also

• top brass

Anagrams

• sharbats