BRAKE

brake

(noun) a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle

brake

(noun) anything that slows or hinders a process; “she wan not ready to put the brakes on her life with a marriage”; “new legislation will put the brakes on spending”

brake

(noun) an area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant

bracken, pasture brake, brake, Pteridium aquilinum

(noun) large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan

brake

(noun) any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants

brake

(verb) cause to stop by applying the brakes; “brake the car before you go into a curve”

brake

(verb) stop travelling by applying a brake; “We had to brake suddenly when a chicken crossed the road”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Proper noun

Brake (plural Brakes)

A surname.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Brake is the 5591st most common surname in the United States, belonging to 6220 individuals. Brake is most common among White (87.32%) individuals.

Anagrams

• Abrek, Baker, baker, barke, break

Etymology 1

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

A fern; bracken. [from 14th c.]

Etymology 2

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

A thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc. [from 15th c.]

Etymology 3

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

A tool used for breaking flax or hemp. [from 15th c.]

A type of machine for bending sheet metal. (See wikipedia.)

A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after ploughing; a drag.

Verb

brake (third-person singular simple present brakes, present participle braking, simple past and past participle braked)

(transitive) To bruise and crush; to knead

(transitive) To pulverise with a harrow

Etymology 4

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

(military) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.

(obsolete) The winch of a crossbow. [14th-19th c.]

(chiefly nautical) The handle of a pump.

Synonym: swipe

A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, by friction; also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car. [from 18th c.]

(engineering) 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.

(figuratively) Something used to retard or stop some action, process etc.

A baker's kneading trough.

A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.

A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him.

An enclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc.

A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.W

A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.W

That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.

Verb

brake (third-person singular simple present brakes, present participle braking, simple past and past participle braked)

(intransitive) To operate (a) brake(s).

(intransitive) To be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking.

Synonyms

• (to operate brakes)

• (to be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking): See also stop

Antonyms

• (to operate brakes): floor it, put the pedal to the metal, redline

• (to be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking): accelerate

Etymology 5

Origin uncertain.

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

(obsolete) A cage. [16th-17th c.]

(now historical) A type of torture instrument. [from 16th c.]

Etymology 6

Inflected forms.

Verb

brake

(archaic) simple past tense of break

Anagrams

• Abrek, Baker, baker, barke, break

Source: Wiktionary


Brake, imp.

Definition: of Break. [Arhaic] Tennyson.

Brake, n. Etym: [OE. brake fern; cf. AS. bracce fern, LG. brake willow bush, Da. bregne fern, G. brach fallow; prob. orig. the growth on rough, broken ground, fr. the root of E. break. See Break, v. t., cf. Bracken, and 2d Brake, n.]

1. (Bot.)

Definition: A fern of the genus Pteris, esp. the P. aquilina, common in almost all countries. It has solitary stems dividing into three principal branches. Less properly: Any fern.

2. A thicket; a place overgrown with shrubs and brambles, with undergrowth and ferns, or with canes. Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough, To shelter thee from tempest and from rain. Shak. He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone. Sir W. Scott. Cane brake, a thicket of canes. See Canebrake.

Brake, n. Etym: [OE. brake; cf. LG. brake an instrument for breaking flax, G. breche, fr. the root of E. break. See Break, v. t., and cf. Breach.]

1. An instrument or machine to break or bruise the woody part of flax or hemp so that it may be separated from the fiber.

2. An extended handle by means of which a number of men can unite in working a pump, as in a fire engine.

3. A baker's kneading though. Johnson.

4. A sharp bit or snaffle. Pampered jades . . . which need nor break nor bit. Gascoigne.

5. A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him; also, an inclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc. A horse . . . which Philip had bought . . . and because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of iron bars. J. Brende.

6. That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.

7. (Mil.)

Definition: An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.

8. (Agric.)

Definition: A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after plowing; a drag.

9. A piece of mechanism for retarding or stopping motion by friction, as of a carriage or railway car, by the pressure of rubbers against the wheels, or of clogs or ratchets against the track or roadway, or of a pivoted lever against a wheel or drum in a machine.

10. (Engin.)

Definition: 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.

11. A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.

12. An ancient instrument of torture. Holinshed. Air brake. See Air brake, in the Vocabulary.

– Brake beam or Brake bar, the beam that connects the brake blocks of opposite wheels.

– Brake block. (a) The part of a brake holding the brake shoe. (b) A brake shoe.

– Brake shoe or Brake rubber, the part of a brake against which the wheel rubs.

– Brake wheel, a wheel on the platform or top of a car by which brakes are operated.

– Continuous brake . See under Continuous.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

20 December 2024

FIDDLE

(verb) commit fraud and steal from one’s employer; “We found out that she had been fiddling for years”


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Coffee Trivia

The world’s most expensive coffee costs more than US$700 per kilogram. Asian palm civet – a cat-like creature in Indonesia, eats fruits, including select coffee cherries. It excretes partially digested seeds that produce a smooth, less acidic brew of coffee called kopi luwak.

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