brush
noun
Brush — a fleeting, glancing encounter with something dangerous or strange
Definition
Contact with something dangerous or undesirable; "I had a brush with danger on my way to work"; "he tried to avoid any brushes with the police"
In depth
A brush, in this sense, is a brief, often unsettling contact with something dangerous or undesirable, a near-encounter that grazes a person's life without fully entangling them in it. The word implies lightness and escape, the sense of having come close to something — danger, fame, death — without quite being caught by it.
Origin
The word derives from the same root as the tool used for sweeping or painting, ultimately from Old French broisse, related to brushwood, the thin branches once bundled to make such tools. The figurative sense of a glancing, light contact likely grew from the literal action of brushing lightly against something in passing, rather than striking or colliding with it directly.
Usage examples
"He still spoke, decades later, of his brush with danger on the icy mountain road."
"Her brief brush with fame, a single viral video, had faded within weeks, leaving her relieved more than disappointed."
"The illness was, doctors agreed, an alarmingly close brush with something far worse."
How to use it
Brush works beautifully in narrative writing for moments of near-miss tension, particularly paired with phrases like 'brush with death' or 'brush with the law,' where the word's lightness underscores how narrowly disaster was avoided.
Related concepts
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