brake
Noun · VerbOpen English WordNet
Noun (5)brakes
- a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicleType of restraint, constraintKinds brake system, hand brake, power brake, coaster brakePart of wheeled vehicle
- any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplantsType of fernMember of Pteris, genus Pteris
- large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitanSynonyms: brackenpasture brakePteridium aquilinumType of fernMember of Pteridium, genus Pteridium
- an area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plantType of brush, brushwood
- anything that slows or hinders a process“she was not ready to put the brakes on her life with a marriage”“new legislation will put the brakes on spending”Type of restraint, constraint
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Verb to operate brakes
Noun something that slows or stops an action
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
past tense of Break. Arhaic Alfred Tennyson
Origin: OE. brake fern; cf. AS. bracce fern, LG. brake willow bush, Da. bregne fern, G. brach fallow; prob. orig. the growth on rough, broken ground, fr. the root of E. break. See Break, transitive verb, cf. Bracken, and 2d Brake, noun
1. Botany A fern of the genus Pteris, esp. the Pteris aquilina, common in almost all countries. It has solitary stems dividing into three principal branches. Less properly: Any fern.
2. A thicket; a place overgrown with shrubs and brambles, with undergrowth and ferns, or with canes.
Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough, To shelter thee from tempest and from rain.— William Shakespeare
He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone.— Sir Walter Scott
Cane brake, a thicket of canes. See Canebrake.
Origin: OE. brake; cf. LG. brake an instrument for breaking flax, G. breche, fr. the root of E. break. See Break, transitive verb, and cf. Breach.
1. An instrument or machine to break or bruise the woody part of flax or hemp so that it may be separated from the fiber.
2. An extended handle by means of which a number of men can unite in working a pump, as in a fire engine.
3. A baker's kneading though. Dr. Samuel Johnson
4. A sharp bit or snaffle.
Pampered jades... which need nor break nor bit.— George Gascoigne
5. A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him; also, an inclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc.
A horse... which Philip had bought... and because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of iron bars.— J. Brende.
6. That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.
7. Military An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
8. Agriculture A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after plowing; a drag.
9. A piece of mechanism for retarding or stopping motion by friction, as of a carriage or railway car, by the pressure of rubbers against the wheels, or of clogs or ratchets against the track or roadway, or of a pivoted lever against a wheel or drum in a machine.
10. 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.
11. A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.
12. An ancient instrument of torture. Raphael Holinshed
Air brake. See Air brake, in the Vocabulary. — Brake beam or Brake bar, the beam that connects the brake blocks of opposite wheels. — Brake block. (a) The part of a brake holding the brake shoe. (b) A brake shoe. — Brake shoe or Brake rubber, the part of a brake against which the wheel rubs. — Brake wheel, a wheel on the platform or top of a car by which brakes are operated. — Continuous brake. See under Continuous.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54