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.

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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.

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brake ³ American  

[brayk] / breɪk /

noun

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

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brake ⁴ American  

[brayk] / breɪk /

verb

Archaic.

1. simple past tense of break.

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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

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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

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brake ³ British  

/ breɪk /

noun

1. another name for bracken See also rock brake

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brake ⁴ British  

/ breɪk /

verb

1. archaic a past tense of break

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Other Word Forms

• brakeless
  adjective

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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

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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

That's because of the switch between having the front and rear wings open in drag-reduction mode on the straights and closing in corners means the cars drop down towards the ground when they brake.

From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026

Police found no brake marks that would have indicated she had tried to stop before crashing, according to the records.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

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

Their experiments showed that the drug weakened a natural brain mechanism that normally acts as a "brake" on somatostatin neurons.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 7, 2026

One was a brake, the other a clutch that you had to push down to get the mower moving.

From "Lawn Boy" by Gary Paulsen

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

When she braked, a third agent became visible standing in front of the car.

From Slate ● Jan. 7, 2026

An 8-year-old Labrador mix, Trevor, had escaped his owner’s yard and ran into the street in front of a Waymo, which braked suddenly, KCAL-TV reported.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2025

Finally, near the bottom of Sugar Hill, Daryl braked.

From "The Stars Beneath Our Feet" by David Barclay Moore

Regulatory T cells, which normally act as a braking system to prevent excessive immune activity, also began producing inflammatory molecules during recurring flares.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 20, 2026

On Sept. 29, the U.S. patent office published a Tesla patent for a series of ducted fans that improve stability during braking and increase speed around corners.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

Another reason is regenerative braking, the process whereby when drivers release the accelerator, the electric car starts to slow down and uses the energy to feed the battery.

From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026

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

From Science Daily ● Sep. 22, 2026

Vostok’s braking rocket fired, a small rocket that slowed the ship down, allowing gravity to pull it back toward Earth.

From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin

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