brand Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a name given to a product or service
    marque; trade name; brand name.
  2. noun a recognizable kind
    make.
    • there's a new brand of hero in the movies now
    • what make of car is that?
  3. noun identification mark on skin, made by burning
  4. noun a piece of wood that has been burned or is burning
    firebrand.
  5. noun a symbol of disgrace or infamy
    stigma; stain; mark.
    • And the Lord set a mark upon Cain"--Genesis
  6. noun a cutting or thrusting weapon that has a long metal blade and a hilt with a hand guard
    steel; blade; sword.
  7. verb burn with a branding iron to indicate ownership; of animals
  8. verb to accuse or condemn or openly or formally or brand as disgraceful
    stigmatise; stigmatize; denounce; mark.
    • He denounced the government action
    • She was stigmatized by society because she had a child out of wedlock
  9. verb mark with a brand or trademark
    brandmark; trademark.
    • when this product is not branded it sells for a lower price
  10. verb mark or expose as infamous
    post.
    • She was branded a loose woman

WordNet

Brand noun
Etymology
OE. brand, brond, AS. brand brond brand, sword, from byrnan, beornan, to burn; akin to D., Dan., Sw., & G. brand brand, Icel. brandr a brand, blade of a sword. See Burn, v. t., and cf. Brandish.
Definitions
  1. A burning piece of wood; or a stick or piece of wood partly burnt, whether burning or after the fire is extinct.
    Snatching a live brand from a wigwam, Mason threw it on a matted roof. Palfrey.
  2. A sword, so called from its glittering or flashing brightness. Poetic Tennyson.
    Paradise, so late their happy seat, Waved over by that flaming brand. Milton.
  3. A mark made by burning with a hot iron, as upon a cask, to designate the quality, manufacturer, etc., of the contents, or upon an animal, to designate ownership; -- also, a mark for a similar purpose made in any other way, as with a stencil. Hence, figurately: Quality; kind; grade; as, a good brand of flour.
  4. A mark put upon criminals with a hot iron. Hence: Any mark of infamy or vice; a stigma.
    The brand of private vice. Channing.
  5. An instrument to brand with; a branding iron.
  6. (Bot.) Any minute fungus which produces a burnt appearance in plants. The brands are of many species and several genera of the order Pucciniæi.
Brand transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Branded; present participle & verbal noun Branding
Definitions
  1. To burn a distinctive mark into or upon with a hot iron, to indicate quality, ownership, etc., or to mark as infamous (as a convict).
  2. To put an actual distinctive mark upon in any other way, as with a stencil, to show quality of contents, name of manufacture, etc.
  3. Fig.: To fix a mark of infamy, or a stigma, upon.
    The Inquisition branded its victims with infamy. Prescott.
    There were the enormities, branded and condemned by the first and most natural verdict of common humanity. South.
  4. To mark or impress indelibly, as with a hot iron.
    As if it were branded on my mind. Geo. Eliot.

Webster 1913