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
You’ve created the life you wanted for yourself, and you can afford to eat in your favorite hotspots, so bravo for making it this far on your own terms.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 12, 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
Any bravo who saw the prospect of some caprice-suiting as inviting enough to visit the Amazons himself, Carvajal solemnly warned, “would go a boy and return an old man.”
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
In February, Thoma Bravo purchased human-capital management company Dayforce for $12.3 billion, marking the private-equity firm’s largest take-private deal to date.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Boeing last year sold parts of its digital aviation services businesses, including flight-planning provider Jeppesen, to private-equity firm Thoma Bravo for $10.55 billion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Co-CEO Mike Cavanagh said that performance “reinforces the value of NBC, Telemundo, Bravo, and Peacock together as one integrated media business with continued opportunity to drive stronger engagement, advertising, and profitability into the future.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Bravo has not yet announced a release date for Season 7 of “RHOSLC,” but the forthcoming season wrapped filming in May and is expected to air this fall.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
In the early morning, Bravo Company was finally able to come to their aid.
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
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
He lived at the house opposite to the cottage of Lucy, and had witnessed from the window the alarm of the bravoes, when Griso endeavoured to collect them in the court-yard.
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni
When he returned to the kitchen, and was employed in taking the polpette from the fire, one of the bravoes approached, and said, in an under tone, “Who are those men?”
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni
Your dismissal of the bravoes, by means of the count’s ring, was a masterly stroke.
From Olla Podrida by Frederick Marryat
The bravoes draw near, and kept their eyes upon him.
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Alessandro Manzoni
“She was nervous at first . . . but she stopped the show several times, and the bravos rang out like pistol shots when she finished.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 10, 2015
Rachel Moore is drawing bravos in Los Angeles, where she's headed to lead its downtown Music Center after 11 years as executive director of New York City-based American Ballet Theatre.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2015
And these—he pointed to some huge black bulls—were Percy’s toros bravos.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 13, 2015
I can only assume the the few bravos were ironic.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 3, 2012
Abandoned buildings were seen less often, die naked children vanished, the bravos in the doorways seemed more sumptuously dressed.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Chicago operagoers had already bravoed both of them long ago.
From Time Magazine Archive
In the studio an audience of 600 stamped, shouted, bravoed for two minutes while the show was still on the air, for 15 minutes after.
From Time Magazine Archive
When it was published in London last month, British critics bravoed.
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
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
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
Nearby, on an old-fashioned bed topped by a canopy, sat bravoing Authoress de Beauvoir.
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.
