bravo
interjection
(used in praising a performer.)
bravo
American
[brah-voh, brah-voh]
/ ˈbrɑ voʊ, brɑˈvoʊ /
interjection
noun
-
bravos,
plural, plural
-
bravoes
plural
-
a shout of “bravo!”
-
a daring bandit, assassin, or murderer, especially one hired to steal or murder for another.
-
a word used in communications to represent the letter B.
verb (used without object)
bravoed,
bravoing
bravo
1
British
interjection
noun
-
a cry of "bravo"
-
a hired killer or assassin
Bravo
2
British
/ ˈbrɑːvəʊ /
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bravo
First recorded in 1755–65; from Italian; see brave
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"No, I stopped," said Meloni, prompting EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen to cheer "bravo".
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
When Maxey—and really, bravo for Maxey, who is the soul of this Philly team—put Game 7 with a string of fearless drives, the statement was Lazarus-like.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 2026
So bravo to you for taking this on.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 19, 2026
"You have brought happiness to all Ivorians, bravo, bravo," said President Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast, which hosted the pan-African tournament.
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2024
“Anyhow, you were muy bravo to take the beating for Fidelito,” Flaco told Matt.
From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer
"Free-falling is a good way to put it," said the US airman, who was identified by the name Bravo during the CBS segment.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
"It was an unregulated facility; it had faced administrative proceedings and fines since 2019, and was a repeat offender," the official, Jose Bravo, said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 12, 2026
Bravo has no intentions to remove footage of Gallagher from the current season, The Times has learned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
Accelerant ARX 8.71%increase; up pointing triangle agreed to go private in a deal with private-equity firm Thoma Bravo worth more than $4 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
We pull into Rio Bravo and pile out of the car, and I stand a little straighter when we step into the restaurant.
From "Leah on the Offbeat" by Becky Albertalli
Griso, having received ample and minute instructions, took his departure, accompanied by the two bravoes; cursing in his heart the whims of his master.
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni
As he approached the castle he made a sign to all the bravoes he met to follow him: filled with unusual apprehension, but with their accustomed submission, they obeyed; their number increased every moment.
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni
The bravoes no longer caused him much uneasiness now that he felt confidence in their master.
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni
The presence of the three bravoes at the inn was discussed, and the landlord was interrogated; but his memory was, on this point, as defective as ever.
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni
Five hundred gentlemen of the best blood in England would hardly have stood tamely by while the bravoes of Whitehall laid hands on their leaders in the midst of the Parliament.
From History of the English People, Volume V Puritan England, 1603-1660 by John Richard Green
By my watch, the ovation at the end lasted eight minutes, with especially ardent bravos for the Met’s chorus master, Donald Palumbo, and his charges.
From New York Times ● Sep. 12, 2021
So what if our bravos are slightly muffled by masks?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2021
Chicago is “a journalistic Yellowstone Park, offering haven to the last herd of fantastic bravos that once roamed the newspaper offices of the country.”
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2016
And these—he pointed to some huge black bulls—were Percy’s toros bravos.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 13, 2015
Dying bravos oft found their way to the House of Black and White, to hasten their ends, but this man had no wounds that she could find.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
When it was published in London last month, British critics bravoed.
From Time Magazine Archive
Chicago operagoers had already bravoed both of them long ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
Onetime Hero Coste, bravoed in Manhattan as a counterspy in 1945, was now arrested in France as a wartime spy for Germany and a collaborator since 1940.
From Time Magazine Archive
At a recital a few days later, chastened Muscovites bravoed her back for five encores.
From Time Magazine Archive
If they keep hysteria at a distance for a few hours, they are bravoed from one end of the Empire to the other.
From An Ocean Tramp by William McFee
Nearby, on an old-fashioned bed topped by a canopy, sat bravoing Authoress de Beauvoir.
From Time Magazine Archive
He was visibly furious when the soloists in Otello tricked him by going offstage by another exit and hiding until Toscanini was forced to face the bravoing audience alone.
From Time Magazine Archive
But, once there, the power and diamond-hard brilliance of his playing had the studio audience bravoing between movements, despite NBC's standing request to the audience not to applaud until the work is finished.
From Time Magazine Archive
There was a burst of loud bravoing and clapping.
From Mortal Coils by Aldous Huxley
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
