Wiktionary

brake

EnglishEdit

 
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

 
Disk brake on a motorcycle.

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 formsEdit

NounEdit

brake (plural brakes)

  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. [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.
    1. The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle
      give the car a quick brake
    2. (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.
    3. (figuratively) Something used to retard or stop some action, process etc.
  2. (military) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
    1. (obsolete) The winch of a crossbow. [14th–19th c.]
  3. (chiefly nautical) The handle of a pump.
    Synonym: swipe
  4. A baker's kneading trough.
    • 1617, Gervase Markham, Cavalarice the English Horseman:
      You shall kneade […] first with handes‥lastly with the brake.
  5. A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
    1. A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him.
    2. 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.
    3. A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.W
    4. A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.W
  6. That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.
Derived termsEdit
Terms derived from brake
DescendantsEdit
  • Portuguese: breque
  • → Swahili: breki
TranslationsEdit
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

VerbEdit

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.
SynonymsEdit
  • (to operate brakes):
  • (to be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking): See also Thesaurus:stop
AntonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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 2Edit

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

NounEdit

brake (plural brakes)

  1. A fern; bracken (Pteridium). [from 14th c.]
  2. Any fern in the genus Pteris
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
bracken — see bracken

Etymology 3Edit

From Old English bracu, first attested in plural 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”).

NounEdit

brake (plural brakes)

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

ReferencesEdit

Etymology 4Edit

Late Middle English, from Middle Low German brake, Dutch braak, Old Dutch braeke; possibly related to sense 1.

NounEdit

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.
TranslationsEdit

VerbEdit

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 termsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Etymology 5Edit

Uncertain.

NounEdit

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 6Edit

Inflected forms.

VerbEdit

brake

  1. (archaic) simple past tense of break

AnagramsEdit

DutchEdit

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

brake

  1. (archaic) singular past subjunctive of breken
  2. (archaic) singular present subjunctive of braken

AnagramsEdit

YolaEdit

VerbEdit

brake

  1. simple past tense of brek
    • 1867, CONGRATULATORY ADDRESS IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, line 14:
      yer name waz ee-kent var ee vriene o' livertie, an He fo brake ye neckarès o' zlaves.
      your name was known to us as the friend of liberty, and he who broke the fetters of the slave.

ReferencesEdit

  • Jacob Poole (1867), 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, page 114
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