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Brake
Definitions
- 1 A surname.
- 1 A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
"She slammed the brakes when she saw a child run in front of the car."
- 2 Certain ferns, including; Any fern in the genus Pteris. countable, uncountable
- 3 A thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc.
"Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough, / To shelter thee from tempest and from rain."
- 4 A type of machine for bending sheet metal. (See wikipedia.)
- 5 A cage. obsolete
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- 6 a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle wordnet
- 7 A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.; The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle
"Give the car a quick brake."
- 8 Certain ferns, including; Bracken (Pteridium spp.). countable, uncountable
- 9 A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods of earth after ploughing; a drag.
- 10 A type of torture instrument. historical
"Methods of applying pain were many and ingenious, in particular the ways of twisting, stretching and manipulating the body out of shape, normally falling under the catch-all term of the rack, or the brakes."
- 11 anything that slows or hinders a process wordnet
- 12 A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.; An apparatus for testing the power of a steam engine or other motor by weighing the amount of friction that the motor will overcome; a friction brake.
- 13 A tool used for breaking flax or hemp.
- 14 an area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant wordnet
- 15 A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.; Something used to retard or stop some action, process etc. figuratively
- 16 large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan wordnet
- 17 An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
- 18 any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants wordnet
- 19 An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.; The winch of a crossbow. obsolete
- 20 The handle of a pump.
- 21 A baker’s kneading trough.
"You shall kneade[…]first with handes‥lastly with the brake."
- 22 A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.; A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing it.
- 23 A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.; An enclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc.
"He was shooting, and the field where the [cock-fighting] ring was verged on the shooting-brake where the rabbits were."
- 24 A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.; A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.ᵂ
- 25 A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.; A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.ᵂ
"It had been arranged as part of the day’s programme that Mr. Cooke was to drive those who wished to go over the Rise in his new brake."
- 26 That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.
- 1 To operate a brake or brakes. intransitive
"Auxiliaries and ancillaries are comprehensive, and include a Westinghouse motor-driven recriprocating compressor used for locomotive braking and general service air, two rotary exhauster sets for train brakes when hauling passenger or fitted freight trains, and an oil-fired train heating boiler."
- 2 To bruise and crush; to knead. transitive
"The farmer’s son brakes the flax while mother brakes the bread dough"
- 3 simple past of break archaic, form-of, past
"And all the people brake off the golden earrings […]"
- 4 cause to stop by applying the brakes wordnet
- 5 To be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking. intransitive
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- 6 To pulverise with a harrow. transitive
- 7 stop travelling by applying a brake wordnet
Etymology
Origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German brake (“nose ring, curb, flax brake”), which according to Watkins is related to sense 4 and from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”).
Origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German brake (“nose ring, curb, flax brake”), which according to Watkins is related to sense 4 and from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”).
Apparently a shortened form of bracken. (Compare chick, chicken.)
From Old English *bracu, attested in a plural compound form fearnbraca (“thickets of fern”), probably from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”) and influenced by sense 2 (“fern”). Compare Middle Low German brake (“stump, branch”).
Late Middle English, from Middle Low German brake, Dutch braak, Old Dutch braeke; possibly related to sense 1.
Late Middle English, from Middle Low German brake, Dutch braak, Old Dutch braeke; possibly related to sense 1.
Uncertain.
Inflected forms.
See also for "brake"
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