brake

English

Disk brake on a motorcycle.

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• enPR: brāk, IPA: /bɹeɪk/, X-SAMPA: /breIk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪk
• Homophone: break

Etymology 1

Apparently a shortened form of bracken. (Compare chick, chicken.)

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

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

Etymology 2

Compare Middle Low German brake.

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

1. A thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc. [from 15th c.]
   • 1807, William Wordsworth, Poems, Fidelity:

     He halts, and searches with his eyes

     Among the scatter'd rocks:

     And now at distance can discern

     A stirring in a brake of fern […].

Etymology 3

From Old Dutch braeke.

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

1. A tool used for breaking flax or hemp. [from 15th c.]
2. A type of machine for bending sheet metal. (See wikipedia.)
3. A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after ploughing; a drag.

Translations

type of machine for bending sheet metal

• Finnish: taivutin (fi), levyntaivutin (fi)

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To bruise and crush; to knead

   The farmer's son brakes the flax while mother brakes the bread dough

2. (transitive) To pulverise with a harrow

Derived terms

• brakeage

Translations

to bruise and crush

• Dutch: braken (nl)

Etymology 4

Origin uncertain.

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

1. (obsolete) The winch of a crossbow. [14th-19th c.]
2. (chiefly nautical) The handle of a pump.
3. 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.]
4. (figuratively) Something used to retard or stop some action, process etc.
5. The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle
6. A baker's kneading trough.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

7. A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him.
8. An enclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc.
   • J. Brende

     A horse […] which Philip had bought […] and because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of iron bars.

9. That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.
10. (military) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
11. (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.
12. A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.

Translations

nautical: handle of pump

device used to slow or stop a vehicle

• Arabic: فرملة (ar) (farámala) f, فرامل (ar) (faraamil) f pl, مكبح (ar) (míkbaH) m
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: galga (eu)
• Belarusian: тормаз (be) (tórmaz) m
• Bulgarian: спирачка (bg) (spiračka) f
• Catalan: fre (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 剎車 (cmn), 刹车 (cmn) (shāchē), 制動器 (cmn), 制动器 (cmn) (zhìdòngqì)

• Czech: brzda (cs) f
• Danish: bremse (da) c
• Dutch: rem, remmen pl, remmer m
• Esperanto: bremsilo (eo), bremso (eo)
• Faroese: bremsa (fo) f
• Finnish: jarru (fi)
• French: frein (fr) m
• Friulian: slaif, fren, sierae
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Bremse (de) f
• Greek: φρένο (el) (fréno) n, τροχοπέδη (el) (trokhopéði) f, πέδη (el) (péði)
• Hebrew: בלמים (he) (b'lamím) m pl
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: fék (hu)
• Indonesian: rem (id)
• Italian: freno (it) m

• Japanese: ブレーキ (ja) (burēki), 制動機 (ja) (せいどうき, seidōki)
• Jèrriais: chabot m
• Korean: 브레이크 (ko) (beureikeu)
• Latvian: bremze f
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: кочница (mk) (kóčnica) f
• Norwegian: brems (no) m
• Occitan: fren (oc)
• Persian: ترمز (fa) (tormoz)
• Polish: hamulec (pl) m
• Portuguese: freio (pt), (Portugal) travão (pt)
• Romanian: frână (ro)
• Romansch: frain (rm), frein (rm), fragn (rm)
• Russian: тормоз (ru) (tórmoz) m
• Serbo-Croatian: kočnica f, кочница (sh) f
• Slovak: brzda (sk) f
• Slovene: zavora (sl) f
• Spanish: freno (es) m
• Tamil: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: fren (tr), eğleç (tr)
• Ukrainian: гальмо (uk) (hal'mó) n
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

something that slows or stops an action

• Bulgarian: спирачка (bg) (spiračka) f
• Danish: bremse (da) c
• Dutch: rem, remming
• Esperanto: bremso (eo)
• Finnish: jarru (fi), hidaste (fi)
• German: Bremse (de) f

• Greek: φρένο (el) (fréno) n
• Hungarian: fék (hu)
• Indonesian: rem (id)
• Portuguese: freio (pt) m
• Russian: тормоз (ru) (tórmoz) m
• Serbo-Croatian: kočnica f

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Albanian: frenë f
• Basque: galga
• Catalan: fre m
• Esperanto: bremsilo (1)

• Slovak: brzda f (1)
• Slovene: zavora f (1)
• Telugu: బ్రేకు (braeku)

Derived terms

air brake antilock brake brake band brake disc brake drum brake fluid brake harrow brake horsepower

brake lining brakeman, brakesman brake drum brake pad brake van brake wheel brakey

caliper brake disc brake emergency brake foot brake hand brake parking brake press brake

Verb

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

1. (intransitive) To operate (a) brake(s).
2. (intransitive) To be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking.

Translations

to operate brakes

• Arabic: فرمل (ar) (fármala), كبح (ar) (kábaHa)
• Bulgarian: спирам (bg) (spiram)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 剎車 (cmn), 刹车 (cmn) (shāchē), 制動 (cmn), 制动 (cmn) (zhìdòng)

• Czech: brzdit (cs)
• Dutch: remmen, op de rem staan/trappen
• Finnish: jarruttaa (fi)
• French: freiner (fr)
• German: bremsen (de)
• Greek: φρενάρω (el) (frenáro)
• Hebrew: בלם (he) (balám)

• Hungarian: fékez (hu)
• Italian: frenare (it)
• Japanese: ブレーキをかける (ja) (burēki-o kakeru)
• Jèrriais: êtreindre lé chabot
• Latvian: bremzēt
• Polish: hamować (pl)
• Romanian: frâna (ro)
• Russian: тормозить (ru) (tormozít') impf., затормозить (ru) (zatormozít') pf.
• Spanish: frenar (es)
• Ukrainian: гальмувати (uk) (halmuváty) impf., загальмувати (uk) (zahalmuváty) pf.

to be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking

• Dutch: remmen (nl), afremmen (nl)
• Finnish: jarruttaa (fi), hidastua (fi)
• German: bremsen (de)

• Greek: φρέναρα (el) (frénara)
• Hungarian: fékez (hu)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: bremsi
• Slovak: brzdiť, zabrzdiť

• Spanish: frenar
• Telugu: ఆపు (aapu)

Etymology 5

Origin uncertain.

Noun

brake (plural brakes)

1. (obsolete) A cage. [16th-17th c.]
2. (now historical) A type of torture instrument. [from 16th c.]
   • 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 83:

     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.

Etymology 6

Inflected forms.

Verb

brake

1. (archaic) simple past tense and past participle of break
   • Exodus 32:3, KJV:

     And all the people brake off the golden earrings […]

Anagrams

• baker, Baker
• break

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Dutch

Verb

brake

1. singular past subjunctive of breken
2. singular present subjunctive of braken

Anagrams

• baker