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bracken

[brak-uh n]
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noun

a large fern or brake, especially Pteridium aquilinum.
a cluster or thicket of such ferns; an area overgrown with ferns and shrubs.

RELATED WORDS

thicket, scrub, shrubbery, undergrowth, grove, cover, coppice, hedge, copse, dingle, sedge, underwood, brushwood, fern, gorse, spinney, chaparral, boscage

Nearby words

  1. brachyurous,
  2. bracing,
  3. bracingly,
  4. braciola,
  5. brack,
  6. bracket,
  7. bracket clock,
  8. bracket creep,
  9. bracket foot,
  10. bracket fungi

Origin of bracken

1275–1325; Middle English braken < Scandinavian; compare Swedish bräken fern, Norwegian brake juniper
Related formsbrack·ened, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bracken

British Dictionary definitions for bracken

bracken

noun

Also called: brake any of various large coarse ferns, esp Pteridium aquilinum, having large fronds with spore cases along the undersides and extensive underground stems
a clump of any of these ferns

Word Origin for bracken

C14: of Scandinavian origin; compare Swedish bräken, Danish bregne
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for bracken

bracken

n.

"coarse fern," early 14c., a northern England word from a Scandinavian source (cf. Danish bregne, Swedish bräken "fern").

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper