brownies

Noun

brownie (countable and uncountable, plural brownies)

1. (countable, usually) A small square piece of rich cake, usually made with chocolate.
   • Order for the brownie was placed but it took half an hour to prepare it.

   Synonyms:

   chocolate brownie

2. (Australia, New Zealand, uncountable) A sweet bread with brown sugar and currants.
   • It was an amusing sight to see the three of us, each with a huge hunch of “browny” (bread sweetened with brown sugar and currants) in one hand, and a lump of ice in the other, for there was no water within reach.1883, James Edge Partington, “A Race Meeting in the Bush—A Graphic Though Ungallant Picture—Life on an Australian Stock Farm—[…]” (chapter VII), in Random Rot. A Journal of Three Years’ Wanderings...
3. A mythical creature, a helpful elf who would secretly do people's housework for them.
   • Thus, offer Brownie a piece of bread, a cup of drink, or a new coat and hood, and he flouted at it, and perhaps, in his huff, quitted the place for ever ; but leave a nice bowl of cream, and some fresh honeycomb, in a snug private corner, and they soon disappeared, though Brownie, it was to be...1828, Thomas Keightley, Fairy Mythology, volume II, page 169
4. A copper coin, brown in colour; a penny, halfpenny, or cent.
   • He rose and jingled in his pockets for change and drew out two brownies. He went and set one on each of Monroe’s eyes[.]1997, Charles Frazier, chapter 2, in Cold Mountain, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 36
5. A household spirit or revered ancestor.
6. Any of various lycaenid butterflies of the Eurasian genus Miletus.

See all 13 meanings of brownie