brake 1
— brakeless , adj.
/brayk/ , n. , v. , braked, braking .
n.
1. a device for slowing or stopping a vehicle or other moving mechanism by the absorption or transfer of the energy of momentum, usually by means of friction.
2. brakes , the drums, shoes, tubes, levers, etc., making up such a device on a vehicle.
3. anything that has a slowing or stopping effect.
4. Also called brakeman . a member of a bobsled team who operates the brake.
5. Also called breaker . a tool or machine for breaking up flax or hemp, to separate the fiber.
6. Also called press brake . a machine for bending sheet metal to a desired shape.
7. Obs. an old instrument of torture.
v.t.
8. to slow or stop by means of or as if by means of a brake.
9. to furnish with brakes.
10. to process (flax or hemp) by crushing it in a brake.
v.i.
11. to use or run a brake.
12. to stop or slow upon being braked.
13. to run a hoisting machine.
[ 1400-50; late ME ]
Syn. 8. halt, arrest, stay, restrain; curb, curtail.
brake 2
/brayk/ , n.
a place overgrown with bushes, brambles, or cane.
[ 1400-50; late ME (in phrase brake of fern thicket of fern) brake thicket ]
brake 3
/brayk/ , n.
any of several large or coarse ferns, esp. the bracken, Pteridium aquilinum.
[ 1275-1325; ME brake, prob. by back formation from braken BRACKEN, taken as pl. ]
brake 4
/brayk/ , v. Archaic.
pt. of break .