brake
English
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Apparently a shortened form of bracken. (Compare chick, chicken.)
Noun
brake (plural brakes)
Translations
a fern
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Etymology 2
Compare Middle Low German brake.
Noun
brake (plural brakes)
- 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 […]
- (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough, / To shelter thee from tempest and from rain.
- (Can we date this quote by Sir Walter Scott and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone.
Etymology 3
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old Dutch braeke.
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.
Translations
tool for crushing and beating flax or hemp
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type of machine for bending sheet metal
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Verb
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- (transitive) To bruise and crush; to knead
- The farmer's son brakes the flax while mother brakes the bread dough
- (transitive) To pulverise with a harrow
Derived terms
Translations
to bruise and crush
to pulverize with a harrow
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Etymology 4
Origin uncertain.
Alternative forms
Noun
brake (plural brakes)
- (military) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
- (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.]
- The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle
- (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.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)
- 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.
- 1868, March 7, The Illustrated London News, number 1472, volume 52, “Law and Police”, page 223:
- He was shooting, and the field where the [cock-fighting] ring was verged on the shooting-brake where the rabbits were.
- (Can we date this quote by J. Brende and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- A horse […] which Philip had bought […] and because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of iron bars.
- 1868, March 7, The Illustrated London News, number 1472, volume 52, “Law and Police”, page 223:
- A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.W
- A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.W
- 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:
- 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.
- 1976, Terrance Dicks, chapter 1, in Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster, page 11:
- A few moments later they heard the sound of an engine, and a muddy shooting brake appeared on the road behind them.
- That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.
Translations
nautical: handle of pump
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device used to slow or stop a vehicle
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something that slows or stops an action
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Derived terms
Terms derived from brake
- air brake
- antilock brake
- brake band
- brake block
- brake disc
- brake drum
- brake drum
- brake fluid
- brake harrow
- brake horsepower
- brake light
- brake lining
- brakeman, brakesman
- brake pad
- brake pedal
- brake shoe
- brake van
- brake wheel
- brakey
- caliper brake
- disc brake
- emergency brake
- foot brake
- hand brake, handbrake
- parabrake
- parking brake
- press brake
- put the brakes on
- sand brake
- vacuum brake
- Westinghouse brake
Descendants
- Portuguese: breque
Verb
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- (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 Thesaurus:stop
Antonyms
- (to operate brakes): floor it, put the pedal to the metal, redline
- (to be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking): accelerate
Translations
to operate brakes
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to be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Etymology 5
Origin uncertain.
Noun
brake (plural brakes)
- (obsolete) A cage. [16th-17th c.]
- (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.
- 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin 2012, p. 83:
Etymology 6
Inflected forms.
Verb
brake
- (archaic) simple past of break
- Exodus 32:3, KJV:
- And all the people brake off the golden earrings […]
- Exodus 32:3, KJV:
Anagrams
Dutch
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Verb
brake
- (deprecated template usage) (archaic) singular past subjunctive of breken
- (deprecated template usage) (archaic) singular present subjunctive of braken
Anagrams
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/eɪk
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- Requests for date/Shakespeare
- Requests for date/Sir Walter Scott
- English terms derived from Old Dutch
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with unknown etymologies
- en:Military
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Nautical
- en:Engineering
- Requests for quotations/Johnson
- Requests for date/J. Brende
- English terms with quotations
- English intransitive verbs
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- English verb forms
- English terms with archaic senses
- en:Ferns
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- Dutch verb forms