brace

/bɹeɪs/

brace noun: a curved instrument or handle of iron or wood, for holding and turning bits, etc.; a bitstock.

Noun

brace (plural braces)

A curved instrument or handle of iron or wood, for holding and turning bits, etc.; a bitstock.
- a brace and bit
That which holds anything tightly or supports it firmly; a bandage or a prop.
A cord, ligament, or rod, for producing or maintaining tension.
A thong used to regulate the tension of a drum.
- The little bones of the ear drum do in straining and relaxing it as the braces of the war drum do in that.1713, W[illiam] Derham, Physico-Theology: Or, A Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God, from His Works of Creation. […], London: […] W[illiam] Innys, […], →OCLC
The state of being braced or tight; tension.
- And I am of opinion, that the moſt frequent cauſe of Deafneſs is to be attributed to the Laxneſs of the Tympanum, vvhen it has loſt its Brace or Tenſion by ſome irregularity in the Figure of thoſe Bones, or defect in that Muſcle: […]1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech: An Essay of Inquiry into the Natural Production of Letters: […], London: […] T. N[ewcomb] for J[ohn] Martyn printer to the R[oyal] Society, […], →OCLC, page...
Harness; warlike preparation.
- ’Tis a Pageant / To keepe vs in falſe gaze, when we conſider / Th’importancie of Cyprus to the Turke; / And let our ſelues againe but vnderſtand, / That as it more concerne the Turke then Rhodes, / So may he with more facile queſtion beare it, / For that it ſtands not in ſuch Warrelike brace, / But...c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
A curved, pointed line, also known as "curly bracket": { or } connecting two or more words or lines, which are to be considered together, such as in {role, roll}; in music, used to connect staves.
(collective, plural brace) A pair, a couple; originally used of dogs, and later of animals generally (e.g., a brace of conies) and then other things, but rarely human persons. (In British use (as plural), this is a particularly common reference to game birds.)
- Coordinate term: leash
- But you, my brace of Lords, were I ſo minded / I heere could plucke his Highneſſe frowne vpon you / And iuſtifie you Traitors: […]1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
Synonyms:

duo, dyad
A piece of material used to transmit, or change the direction of, weight or pressure; any one of the pieces, in a frame or truss, which divide the structure into triangular parts. It may act as a tie, or as a strut, and serves to prevent distortion of the structure, and transverse strains in its members. A boiler brace is a diagonal stay, connecting the head with the shell.
A rope reeved through a block at the end of a yard, by which the yard is moved horizontally; also, a rudder gudgeon.
(Cornwall, UK) The mouth of a shaft.
(UK, in plural) Straps or bands to sustain trousers; suspenders.

Show 5 more meaningsShow fewer meanings

(plural, singular) A system of wires, brackets, and elastic bands used to correct crooked teeth or to reduce overbite.
Two goals scored by one player in a game.
- Coordinate term: hat trick
- The Manchester United midfielder’s late brace against Cyprus at the weekend was welcome, but will become no more than a footnote of his Scotland career. His brace here to down the mighty Spanish will go down in history.28 March 2023, Graeme McGarry, “Scott McTominay earns place in history as Scotland stun Spain”, in The Herald
Two wickets taken with two consecutive deliveries.
(obsolete) Armor for the arm; vambrace.
(obsolete) A measurement of length, originally representing a person's outstretched arms.

Synonyms:

fathom

Verb

brace (third-person singular simple present braces, present participle bracing, simple past and past participle braced)

(intransitive, transitive) To prepare for something bad, such as an impact or blow.
- All hands, brace for impact!
- Brace yourself!
To place in a position for resisting pressure; to hold firmly.
- He braced himself against the crowd.
- She braced her back against the wall.
To swing round the yards of a square rigged ship, using braces, to present a more efficient sail surface to the direction of the wind.
- to brace the yards
To stop someone for questioning, usually said of police.
To confront with questions, demands or requests.
- Just about then the young kid who had braced us when we came in uttered a curse and made for the door.1980, Stephen King, The Wedding Gig
- “Constable Fancy’s collecting evidence from his flat while Morse and me brace Valdemar.”2018 February 11, Colin Dexter, Russell Lewis, 58:13 from the start, in Endeavour(Cartouche), season 5, episode 2 (TV series), spoken by DCI Fred Thursday (Roger Allam)
To furnish with braces; to support; to prop.
- to brace a beam in a building
To draw tight; to tighten; to put in a state of tension; to strain; to strengthen.
- to brace the nerves
- And welcome war to brace her drums.1825, Thomas Campbell, Hallowed Ground
To bind or tie closely; to fasten tightly.
- The women of China[…], by bracing and binding them [their feet] from their infancy, have very little feet.1693, [John Locke], “§12”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC
- some who spurs had first braced on1815, Walter Scott, Lord of the Isles

Proper noun capitalized: Brace

Brace (plural Braces)

A surname from Old French.

brace meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

brace in Tamil

துறப்பணம், பற்சக்கரம், சோடி, துளைகருவி, பிணைக்கட்டு, அணைச்சட்டம்

brace in Marathi

ब्रेस

brace in Urdu

بریس

brace in Bengali

যুগল, জোড়া, ধনুর্বন্ধনী, বাহুর বর্ম

More languagesFewer languages

brace in Malayalam: കൊടിൽ, കുടിൽ, ശങ്കു, ഇടുക്കി
brace in Kannada: ಎಡ, ಎಣೆ, ಜೋಡಿ, ಬಿಗಿಕಟ್ಟು ಯಾ ಬಿಗಿಪಟ್ಟಿ
brace in Punjabi: ਬ੍ਰੇਸ, ਬਰੈੱਸ
brace in Gujarati: બ્રેસ, બ્રેઝ
brace in Sanskrit: युग yugá
brace in Nepali: ब्रेस, ब्रेस गर्न
brace in Indonesian: dwigol

Examples of brace in a sentence

The boy has no idea about everything that's been going on. You need to brace him for what's about to happen.
A brace of brethren, both bishops, both eminent for learning and religion, now appeared in the church; […]1655, Thomas Fuller, “Section II. The Seventh Century.”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC...
He is ſaid, this ſummer to have ſhot with his own hands fifty brace of pheaſants, and one wild pig; to have ſet thirty coveys of partridges; and to have hunted down forty brace of hares; […]1716 May 3 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 36. Sunday, April 23. [1716.]”, in The Works of the Right Honourable...
"Are you a prime shot?" said Richard. / Ripton nodded knowingly, and answered, "Pretty good." / "Then we'll have a dozen brace apiece to-day," said Richard.1859, George Meredith, “Showing How the Fates Selected the Fourteenth Birthday to Try the Strength of the System”, in The Ordeal of Richard...
There were four of us,—my friend the captain, myself, an old sportsman from Sognedale, called Peter Sandaker, and a smart boy, who had charge of two brace of hounds.1881, P. Chr. Asbjörnsen [i.e., Peter Christen Asbjørnsen], “A Day with the Capercailzies”, in H. L. Brækstad, transl., Round the Yule Log....

All 40 example sentences with brace

Synonyms of brace

Forms of brace

Noun
plural	braces
Verb
third-person singular present	braces
present participle	bracing
past participle	braced
past	braced
Proper noun
plural	Braces

Past tense of brace: braced

Plural of brace: braces

Origin of brace

From Middle English brace, from Old French brace (“arm”), from Latin bracchia, the nominative and accusative plural of bracchium (“arm”).

English surname of Norman origin, from Old French brace (“arm”) and thus related to the noun brace.

Words formed from brace

Phrases with brace

Words that rhyme with brace

45 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about brace

What does brace mean?: Brace means a curved instrument or handle of iron or wood, for holding and turning bits, etc.; a bitstock.
What is brace in Tamil?: Brace in Tamil is துறப்பணம், பற்சக்கரம், சோடி. See Brace meaning in Tamil.
How do you use brace in a sentence?: The boy has no idea about everything that's been going on. You need to brace him for what's about to happen.
What part of speech is brace?: Brace can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce brace?: Brace is pronounced /bɹeɪs/.
What is the plural of brace?: The plural of brace is braces.

Words near brace in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: brace (page history and authors); Brace (page history and authors); brace (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brace (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); brace (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); brace (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brace (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); brace (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); brace (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); brace (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); युग (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); brace (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-brace.wav.

Cite this entry: “brace.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brace. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.