"broad brush" meaning in English

See broad brush in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: broad brushes [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun|-|+}} broad brush (usually uncountable, plural broad brushes)
  1. (idiomatic, uncommon) A style or approach that deals with something in very general, sweeping terms, without attention to fine details or subtle nuances. Tags: idiomatic, uncommon, uncountable, usually Derived forms: paint with a broad brush [common] Related terms: broad-brush, broad-brusher
    Sense id: en-broad_brush-en-noun-2QauUMJL Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "broad brushes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "2": "+"
      },
      "expansion": "broad brush (usually uncountable, plural broad brushes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "common"
          ],
          "word": "paint with a broad brush"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A style or approach that deals with something in very general, sweeping terms, without attention to fine details or subtle nuances."
      ],
      "id": "en-broad_brush-en-noun-2QauUMJL",
      "links": [
        [
          "style",
          "style"
        ],
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ],
        [
          "deal",
          "deal"
        ],
        [
          "general",
          "general"
        ],
        [
          "sweeping",
          "sweeping"
        ],
        [
          "term",
          "term"
        ],
        [
          "attention",
          "attention"
        ],
        [
          "fine",
          "fine"
        ],
        [
          "detail",
          "detail"
        ],
        [
          "subtle",
          "subtle"
        ],
        [
          "nuance",
          "nuance"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, uncommon) A style or approach that deals with something in very general, sweeping terms, without attention to fine details or subtle nuances."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "broad-brush"
        },
        {
          "word": "broad-brusher"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "uncommon",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "broad brush"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "common"
      ],
      "word": "paint with a broad brush"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "broad brushes",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "-",
        "2": "+"
      },
      "expansion": "broad brush (usually uncountable, plural broad brushes)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "broad-brush"
    },
    {
      "word": "broad-brusher"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with uncommon senses",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A style or approach that deals with something in very general, sweeping terms, without attention to fine details or subtle nuances."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "style",
          "style"
        ],
        [
          "approach",
          "approach"
        ],
        [
          "deal",
          "deal"
        ],
        [
          "general",
          "general"
        ],
        [
          "sweeping",
          "sweeping"
        ],
        [
          "term",
          "term"
        ],
        [
          "attention",
          "attention"
        ],
        [
          "fine",
          "fine"
        ],
        [
          "detail",
          "detail"
        ],
        [
          "subtle",
          "subtle"
        ],
        [
          "nuance",
          "nuance"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, uncommon) A style or approach that deals with something in very general, sweeping terms, without attention to fine details or subtle nuances."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "uncommon",
        "uncountable",
        "usually"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "broad brush"
}

Download raw JSONL data for broad brush meaning in English (1.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-01-16 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-01-01 using wiktextract (d1270d2 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.