Word.ws English Dictionary

broad-brush

broad-brush adjective: general and sweeping in scope but lacking detail.

Adjective

broad-brush (not comparable)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) General and sweeping in scope but lacking detail.
    • He takes a broad-brush approach to the study of history.
    • In setting out a broad-brush approach, the Arriva-owned operator doesn't make any specific requirements, but it says the replacement trains "must achieve a meaningful reduction in the exhaust emissions and exterior noise levels compared to Chiltern's existing DMUs".2023 August 23, Mel Holley, “Network News: ... while Chiltern Railways targets low-emissions stock”, in RAil, number 990, page 7

Verb

broad-brush (third-person singular simple present broad-brushes, present participle broad-brushing, simple past and past participle broad-brushed)

  1. (idiomatic, informal, transitive) To generalize or describe (something) in very broad, sweeping terms.

Forms of broad-brush

third-person singular presentbroad-brushes
present participlebroad-brushing
past participlebroad-brushed
pastbroad-brushed

Words formed from broad-brush

Questions about broad-brush

What does broad-brush mean?
Broad-brush means general and sweeping in scope but lacking detail.
What part of speech is broad-brush?
Broad-brush can be an adjective or a verb.

Words near broad-brush in the dictionary

  1. broad-billed moas
  2. broad-billed parrot
  3. broad-billed parrots
  4. broad-billed sandpiper
  5. broad-billed sandpipers
  6. broad-brush
  7. broad-brushed
  8. broad-brusher
  9. broad-brushers
  10. broad-brushes
  11. broad-brushing

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: broad-brush (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “broad-brush.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/broad-brush. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.