Showing results for "brake"

• past tense form of break.

brake

¹ American  

[brayk] / breɪk /

noun

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. Textiles. 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. Obsolete. an old instrument of torture.

---

verb (used with object)

braked, braking

1. to slow or stop by means of or as if by means of a brake.

   Synonyms:

   bridle, curb, restrain, stay, arrest, halt

2. to furnish with brakes.

3. to process (flax or hemp) by crushing it in a brake.

verb (used without object)

braked, braking

1. to use or run a brake.

2. to stop or slow upon being braked.

3. to run a hoisting machine.

brake ² American  

[brayk] / breɪk /

noun

1. a place overgrown with bushes, brambles, or cane.

---

brake ³ American  

[brayk] / breɪk /

noun

1. any of several large or coarse ferns, especially the bracken, Pteridium aquilinum.

---

brake ⁴ American  

[brayk] / breɪk /

verb

Archaic.

1. simple past tense of break.

---

brake ¹ British  

/ breɪk /

noun

1. 1. (often plural) a device for slowing or stopping a vehicle, wheel, shaft, etc, or for keeping it stationary, esp by means of friction See also drum brake disc brake hydraulic brake air brake handbrake

   2. ( as modifier )

      the brake pedal

2. a machine or tool for crushing or breaking flax or hemp to separate the fibres

3. Also called: brake harrow. a heavy harrow for breaking up clods

4. short for brake van

5. short for shooting brake

6. Also spelt: break. an open four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage

7. an obsolete word for rack 1

---

verb

1. to slow down or cause to slow down, by or as if by using a brake

2. (tr) to crush or break up using a brake

brake ² British  

/ breɪk /

noun

1. an area of dense undergrowth, shrubs, brushwood, etc; thicket

---

brake ³ British  

/ breɪk /

noun

1. another name for bracken See also rock brake

---

brake ⁴ British  

/ breɪk /

verb

1. archaic a past tense of break

---

Other Word Forms

• brakeless
  adjective

---

Etymology

Origin of brake¹

First recorded in 1400–50; of uncertain origin; possibly a special use of obsolete brake “a bridle, curb,” from Middle Dutch braeke “(flax) brake” (a tool that separates flax fibers from their woody stems); akin to break

Origin of brake²

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English fernebrake “fern thicket, fernbrake,” Old English (fearn)bracu “bed of fern, (fern)brake,” akin to Middle Low German brake “branch, twig, tree stump”

Origin of brake³

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English brake, probably by back formation from braken “thicket of fern,” taken as plural; see bracken

---

Explanation

To brake is to stop. The noun brake is the pedal in the car that stops the vehicle when pressed. When you want to brake, step on the brake)! In Middle English breken meant things that stopped others, such as a bridle for a horse. If your bicycle screeches at the bottom of every hill, maybe you should have the brakes checked. French Poet Paul Valery saw a brake as a stopping agent for more than just a vehicle: “Man's great misfortune is that he has no organ, no kind of eyelid or brake, to mask or block a thought, or all thought, when he wants to.”

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

brake braked braking

But he escaped a five-second penalty because one of the transgressions was when he suffered a long brake pedal caused by heat soak after his pit stop, so he was excused.

From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026

He invented the Westinghouse air brake, making train travel safe and comfortable, and founded the Westinghouse Electric Co.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

Surprisingly, removing this brake did not make the cleanup process more effective.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 5, 2026

Rush hour traffic was moving slowly when Rios’s Expedition entered one of the busiest junctions in the San Fernando Valley, but the SUV did not appear to brake before it T-boned the bus, witnesses said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

I did not know it was there and had been letting them run, not riding the sled brake to slow them, and we virtually shot off the edge.

From "Woodsong" by Gary Paulsen

There were no signs the driver braked in the moments before the collision, video footage of the incident shows.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

On the front brakes it just braked a lot more than what I thought and in the rear brakes there was no deceleration at all.

From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026

The car braked, steered and accelerated more smoothly than my Ford Mustang Mach-E.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026

“The Waymo Driver braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026

Zach braked at a stop sign next to the Dixie Cafe, which sat practically in the front yard of the Tri-County Livestock Company, and for some reason this made me furious.

From "The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd

Early on, the braking mechanism was harsh and the trucks sometimes unexpectedly stopped when approaching an overpass.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

This quick acceleration and braking can help insects determine their position and maintain clear vision.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

Authorities are also reviewing the SUV’s event data recorder to determine Rios’ speed, braking and acceleration in the seconds before the deadly crash.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 17, 2026

The main one is the lack of a long straight leading into a big braking zone.

From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026

The train station smelled like roasting pistachios from the old Turkish merchant outside, and burnt rubber from the train braking.

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• damper
• restraint

---