brown shirt

English

Noun

brown shirt (plural brown shirts)

1. Alternative form of Brownshirt
   • 1985, Lannon D. Reed, Behold a pale horse: a novel of homosexuals in the Nazi holocaust:

     "Don't look back right now, but I think some brown shirts are following us," Franz whispered.

   • 2011, Gregory A. Freeman, The Last Mission of the Wham Bam Boys, →ISBN:

     Known by the Germans as the SA but more commonly called storm troopers or brown shirts by Westerners, the SA were considered Hitler's own private army.

   • 2015, William Manchester, Paul Reid, The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill, →ISBN:

     In fact, during the very hours Hitler spoke, and while his train got up steam for the journey to his East Prussian headquarters, and while his loyal brown shirts strutted and swayed under a thick haze of cigarette smoke on reached the beer-drenched flood tide.

2. A worker whose role is identified by a uniform with a brown or khaki shirt.
   1. A member of the squadron personnel on an aircraft carrier.
      • 1992, Richard Parry, Venom Virus, page 206:

        Aircraft maintenance brown shirts crawled over the plane, checking fasteners and the landing carriage.

      • 1999, United States. Naval Air Systems Command, Naval aviation news, page 23:

        Two "brown shirts" remove the chains tying the Greyhound to the flight deck pad eyes.

      • 2014, Bishop Aaron Williams, My Father’s Business: A Memoir of Purpose and Revelation, →ISBN, pages 12–13:

        In addition to the constant inspections, brown shirts check fluid levels, prepare the cockpit for flight and ensure there is no foreign object debris that could damage the "bird".

   2. A member of the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Protection Services.
      • 2007, Dana Stabenow, A Deeper Sleep, →ISBN, page 36:

        We really could use a brown shirt in the Park. I don't have time to be screwing around with critter problems.

      • 2013, C. B. Bernard, Chasing Alaska: A Portrait of the Last Frontier Then and Now, →ISBN, page 233:

        The divisions overlap at some points, like Soldotna and Anchor Point -- blue shirts handling criminal and traffic complaints, brown shirts sticking to more mission-related issues -- but in Cordova the wildlife troopers cover all law enforcement that falls under the state's jurisdiction. Cloward oversees a few brown shirts, and the motherly Dixie Lambert, who runs the office, handles dispatch and generally keeps the rest of the staff in line.

      • 2015, Ron Dalby, Pipeline, →ISBN:

        “Frankly, I never thought of the brown shirts when I asked the blue shirts to attend this meeting,” Commissioner Burton admitted, “but you're right. If we are going to get a hint of something bad going on in the back country, these are the guys most likely to sniff it out..."

3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see brown,‎ shirt.