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
Nowadays, those hankering for a dose of first-person confessional need only open their TikTok feeds or turn on Bravo.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
While the NBC broadcast network, television stations and Bravo cable channel are seen by some as holding less appeal for a suitor such as Netflix or Amazon, there is still value in those platforms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
Directed by Janicza Bravo and photographed with great intention by Jody Lee Lipes, it has the studied look and tempo of a 20th-century art film.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
Private equity firm Thoma Bravo bought the company in 2014 and took it public in 2017, only to buy it back in 2022 for $6.9 billion.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
The Rio Bravo, as it is called here, is swollen with rain, a torrent of water coursing toward the Gulf of Mexico.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
Your dismissal of the bravoes, by means of the count’s ring, was a masterly stroke.
From Olla Podrida by Marryat, Frederick
He was the leader of this troop of bravoes.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 60, No. 370, August 1846 by Various
With the garrison of bravoes which he kept at the castle he could defy an army, which he would have crushed in the valley beneath, before an individual could reach the summit.
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Manzoni, Alessandro
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 Manzoni, Alessandro
But no one could account for the attack of the bravoes: all agreed in suspecting Don Roderick; but the rest was total obscurity.
From The Betrothed From the Italian of Alessandro Manzoni by Manzoni, Alessandro
So what if our bravos are slightly muffled by masks?
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 23, 2021
At the end, the courageous cast and creative team received lusty bravos from many in the hall.
From New York Times ● Jan. 10, 2016
“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
And these—he pointed to some huge black bulls—were Percy’s toros bravos.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 13, 2015
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
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
Years passed and at the Metropolitan Tenor Martinelli continued to take second place to some more bravoed figure.
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
"And my Sunbeam was bravoed, and encored, and crowned with flowers, was she not?"
From The Baronet's Bride by Fleming, May Agnes
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 Huxley, Aldous
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.
