brownshirt
Americannoun
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a Nazi.
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a Nazi storm trooper.
Etymology
Origin of brownshirt
1930–35; brown + shirt so called from the color of the shirt worn as part of the uniform
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.
He was supposed to be their very own Horst Wessel, the murdered brownshirt the Nazis used as a martyr to rally people to fascism.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2025
He said the protest at the social affairs minister’s house had crossed a “red line,” harking back to the torch-lit Nazi brownshirt rallies of the 1930s.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 30, 2022
The 1,000,000 steel helmet troopers, whom Adolf Hitler once barred from joining his Storm detachments, were told that they must join the brownshirt Storm Battalions and obey hereafter only Chancellor Hitler.
From Time Magazine Archive
In Germany brownshirt wrath boiled when His Eminence Michael Cardinal von Faulhaber, Archbishop of Munich, defied Nazis who demanded that he order prayers for immediate return of the Saar to Germany.
From Time Magazine Archive
The tide seemed to turn when 500 Stennes stormers permitted 100 loyal Hitlerites to eject them from brownshirt headquarters.
From Time Magazine Archive
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.
