emergency brake

American

noun

Also called parking brake. a special brake used to prevent a motor vehicle from rolling after it has stopped or been parked.
any brake meant to stop a vehicle in an emergency.

Etymology

Origin of emergency brake

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Identifying these risks is a net gain to the world, not a disaster, not a reason to pull the emergency brake on AI.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026

They witnessed history when their leader fulfilled a dream to play with his son, they reshaped their culture with one trade and pulled the emergency brake to get out of another.

From Los Angeles Times • May 1, 2025

"The emergency brake downstream worked but clearly not the one on the cabin that was about to reach the top of the hill," he told Italian media on Thursday.

From BBC • Apr. 18, 2025

In the Fort Totten crash, the system didn’t detect the parked train, and an operator onboard the moving train was unable to hit an emergency brake in time.

From Washington Post • Mar. 6, 2023

Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.

From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023