brake

Etymology 1

table Origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German brake (“nose ring, curb, flax brake”), which according to Watkins is related to sense 4 and from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”).

noun

1. A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
   1. The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle
      give the car a quick brake
   2. (engineering) An apparatus for testing the power of a steam engine or other motor by weighing the amount of friction that the motor will overcome; a friction brake.
   3. (figurative) Something used to retard or stop some action, process etc.
2. (military) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
   1. (obsolete) The winch of a crossbow.
3. (chiefly nautical) The handle of a pump.
4. A baker's kneading trough.
   You shall kneade[…]first with handes‥lastly with the brake. 1617, Gervase Markham, Cavalarice the English Horseman
5. A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
   1. A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him.
   2. An enclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc.
      He was shooting, and the field where the [cock-fighting] ring was verged on the shooting-brake where the rabbits were. 1868, March 7, The Illustrated London News, number 1472, volume 52, “Law and Police”, page 223
   3. A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.ᵂ
   4. A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.ᵂ
      A few moments later they heard the sound of an engine, and a muddy shooting brake appeared on the road behind them. 1976, Terrance Dicks, chapter 1, in Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster, page 11
6. That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.

verb

1. (intransitive) To operate (a) brake(s).
2. (intransitive) To be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking.

Etymology 2

table Apparently a shortened form of bracken. (Compare chick, chicken.)

noun

1. A fern; bracken (Pteridium).
2. Any fern in the genus Pteris

Etymology 3

table From Old English bracu, first attested in plural form fearnbraca (“thickets of fern”), probably from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”) and influenced by sense 2 (“fern”). Compare Middle Low German brake (“stump, branch”).

noun

1. A thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc.
   He halts, and searches with his eyes Among the scatter'd rocks: And now at distance can discern A stirring in a brake of fern […] 1807, William Wordsworth, Poems, Fidelity

Etymology 4

table Late Middle English, from Middle Low German brake, Dutch braak, Old Dutch braeke; possibly related to sense 1.

noun

1. A tool used for breaking flax or hemp.
2. A type of machine for bending sheet metal. (See wikipedia.)
3. A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after ploughing; a drag.

verb

1. (transitive) To bruise and crush; to knead
   The farmer's son brakes the flax while mother brakes the bread dough
2. (transitive) To pulverise with a harrow

Etymology 5

table Uncertain.

noun

1. (obsolete) A cage.
2. (now historical) A type of torture instrument.
   Methods of applying pain were many and ingenious, in particular the ways of twisting, stretching and manipulating the body out of shape, normally falling under the catch-all term of the rack, or the brakes. 2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 83

Etymology 6

table Inflected forms.

verb

1. (archaic) simple past of break