brake
English
editPronunciation
editEtymology 1
edit
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”).
Alternative forms
editNoun
editbrake (plural brakes)
- 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. [from 18th c.]
- She slammed the brakes when she saw a child run in front of the car.
- You’re pressing the brakes too hard—try just squeezing them.
- The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle
- Give the car a quick brake.
- (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.
- (military) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
- (chiefly nautical) The handle of a pump.
- Synonym: swipe
- A baker’s kneading trough.
- 1617, Gervase Markham, Cavalarice the English Horseman:
- You shall kneade […] first with handes‥lastly with the brake.
- 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.
- 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
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- 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.
Derived terms
edit- ABS brake
- air brake, airbrake
- air-braked
- antilock brake
- autobrake
- back pedal brake
- band brake
- brake assembly
- brake band
- brake bias
- brake block
- brake check
- brake cylinder
- brake disc
- brake drum
- brake dust
- brake fade
- brake fluid
- brakeforce
- brakeful
- brakegear, brake gear
- brake harrow
- brake horsepower
- brakeless
- brake light
- brake line
- brake lining
- brakeload
- brakemaker
- brakeman, brakesman
- brake mean effective pressure
- brake noodle
- brake pad, brakepad
- brake pedal
- brake pipe, brakepipe
- brake press
- brake shoe, brakeshoe
- brake tender
- brake test
- brake van
- brake wheel
- brakewoman
- brakey
- bread brake
- brifter
- caliper brake
- cane brake
- coaster brake
- dead man's brake
- deadman's brake
- disc brake
- drum brake
- dynamic brake
- e-brake
- emergency brake
- foot brake
- friction brake
- hand brake, handbrake
- independent brake
- jake brake
- muzzle brake
- parabrake
- parking brake
- press brake
- Prony brake
- put the brakes on
- rail brake
- regenerative brake
- ribbon brake
- rim brake
- sand brake
- service brake
- shooting brake
- shooting-brake
- spoon brake
- strap brake
- track brake
- tread brake
- unbraked
- vacuum brake
- V brake
- water brake
- Westinghouse brake
- wheelbrake
Descendants
edit- → Japanese: ブレーキ (burēki)
- → Korean: 브레이크 (beureikeu)
- → Portuguese: breque
- → Swahili: breki
- → Thai: เบรก (brèek)
- → Welsh: brêc
Translations
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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.
Verb
editbrake (third-person singular simple present brakes, present participle braking, simple past and past participle braked)
- (intransitive) To operate a brake or brakes.
- (intransitive) To be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking.
Synonyms
edit- (to be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking): See also Thesaurus:stop
Antonyms
edit- (antonym(s) of “to operate brakes”): floor it, put the pedal to the metal, redline
- (antonym(s) of “to be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking”): accelerate
Derived terms
editTranslations
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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.
Etymology 2
editApparently a shortened form of bracken. (Compare chick, chicken.)
Noun
editbrake (plural brakes)
Derived terms
editTranslations
editEtymology 3
editFrom 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”).
Noun
editbrake (plural brakes)
- A thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc. [from 15th c.]
- 1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC:
- Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough, / To shelter thee from tempest and from rain.
- 1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Company, […]; London: William Miller, and John Murray, →OCLC:
- He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone.
- 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 […]
- 1859, George Meredith, chapter 5, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:
- The bird, with its fellow in the break, drummed, and whirred, and to the misfortune of its species made its plumage seem a prize to them.
Derived terms
editTranslations
editReferences
edit- Oxford English Dictionary, 1884–1928, and First Supplement, 1933.
- “brake”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
Etymology 4
editLate Middle English, from Middle Low German brake, Dutch braak, Old Dutch braeke; possibly related to sense 1.
Noun
editbrake (plural brakes)
- (textiles) 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.
Related terms
editTranslations
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Verb
editbrake (third-person singular simple present brakes, present participle braking, simple past and past participle braked)
- (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
editTranslations
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Etymology 5
editUncertain.
Noun
editbrake (plural brakes)
- (obsolete) A cage. [16th–17th c.]
- (now historical) A type of torture instrument. [from 16th c.]
- 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 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
editInflected forms.
Verb
editbrake
- (archaic) simple past of break
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Exodus 32:3:
- And all the people brake off the golden earrings […]
Anagrams
editDutch
editPronunciation
editAudio: (file)
Verb
editbrake
- (dated or formal) singular past subjunctive of breken
- (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of braken
Anagrams
editYola
editPronunciation
editVerb
editbrake
- simple past of brough
- 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 114, lines 12-14:
- az avare ye trad dicke londe yer name waz ee-kent var ee vriene o' livertie, an He fo brake ye neckarès o' zlaves.
- for before your foot pressed the soil, your name was known to us as the friend of liberty, and he who broke the fetters of the slave.
References
edit- Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 114
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