• enPR: brāk, IPA: /bɹeɪk/

Origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch - or Middle Low German brake, which according to Watkins is related to sense 4 and from Proto-Germanic *brekaną.

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]
3. (chiefly nautical) The handle of a pump.

   Synonyms: swipe

4. A baker’s kneading trough.
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.^{Brake (carriage)}
   4. A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.^{Shooting-brake}
      • 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.

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

• French: frein
• German: Bremse
• Italian: freno
• Portuguese: freio, (Portugal) travão
• Russian: то́рмоз
• Spanish: freno

• German: Bremse
• Portuguese: freio
• Russian: то́рмоз

• French: bringuebale
• German: Geckstock, Geck, Pumpengeck, Pumpenschwengel
• Italian: manovella della tromba
• Portuguese: embalete
• Russian: рука́в
• Spanish: guimbalete

brake (brakes, present participle braking; simple past and past participle braked)

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

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

• (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

• French: freiner
• German: bremsen
• Italian: frenare
• Portuguese: freiar, travar
• Russian: тормози́ть
• Spanish: frenar

• German: bremsen
• Portuguese: freiar
• Russian: тормози́ть
• Spanish: frenar

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

brake (plural brakes)

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

From Old English bracu, first attested in plural form fearnbraca ("thickets of fern"), probably from Proto-Germanic *brekaną and influenced by sense 2.

brake (plural brakes)

1. 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 21, 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.

   • 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.

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

brake (plural brakes)

1. (textiles) 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.

• (textiles) hackle, ripple, scutch, swingle

• French: broie, brisoir
• German: Flachsbreche
• Italian: gramola
• Spanish: agramadera

• French: plieuse, cintreuse
• German: Abkantbank, Schwenkbiegemaschine

brake (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.

• French: macquer
• German: brechen, brecheln, bracken (Westphalia and elsewhere from Low German)

brake (plural brakes)

1. (obsolete) A cage. [16th]
2. (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.

Inflected forms.

1. (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 […]

1. Surname.