Definitions for: Brake


[n] a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle
[n] an area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant
[n] large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan
[n] any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants
[v] cause to stop by applying the brakes
[v] stop travelling by applying a brake; "We had to brake suddenly when a chicken crossed the road"



Webster (1913) Definition: Brake (br[=a]k),
imp. of Break. [Arhaic] --Tennyson.


Brake, n. [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, v. t., cf. Bracken, and 2d Brake, n.]
1. (Bot.) A fern of the genus Pteris, esp. the {P.
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. --Shak.

He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for
stone. --Sir W.
Scott.

Cane brake, a thicket of canes. See Canebrake.


Brake (br[=a]k), n. [OE. brake; cf. LG. brake an
instrument for breaking flax, G. breche, fr. the root of E.
break. See Break, v. t., 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. --Johnson.

4. A sharp bit or snaffle.

Pampered jades . . . which need nor break nor bit.
--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. (Mil.) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow
and ballista.

8. (Agric.) 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. (Engin.) 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. --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.

Synonyms: bracken, pasture brake, Pteridium aquilinum

See Also: airbrake, brake system, brakes, brush, brushwood, coaster brake, constraint, coppice, copse, emergency, emergency brake, fern, genus Pteridium, genus Pteris, halt, hand brake, parking brake, Pteridium, Pteris, restraint, skid, stop, thicket, wheeled vehicle

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