braid
/bɹeɪd/
braid verb: to make a sudden movement with, to jerk.
Verb
braid (third-person singular simple present braids, present participle braiding, simple past and past participle braided)
- To make a sudden movement with, to jerk.
- To start into motion.
- To weave together, intertwine (strands of fibers, ribbons, etc.); to arrange (hair) in braids.
- Braid your locks with rosy twine.1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- interlace, interthread, twine, betwine, entwist, entwine, intertwine, intertwist, interweave, lace
- To mix, or make uniformly soft, by beating, rubbing, or straining, as in preparing food.
- To reproach; to upbraid.
- Great King, / Few loue to heare the ſinnes they loue to act, / T'would brayde your ſelfe too neare for me to tell it […]c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: […] [William White and Thomas Creede] for Henry...
Noun (1)
braid (countable and uncountable, plural braids)
- A sudden movement; a jerk, a wrench.
- And than in a brayde Sir Launcelot brake hys chaynes of hys legges and of hys armys (and in the brakynge he hurte hys hondys sore)[…].1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum ii”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer...
- He fixt vpon my face, which to my death / Will neuer part fro me, when with a braide / A deepe fet sigh he gaue, and therewithall / Clasping his handes, to heauen he cast his sight.1561, Thomas Sackville, Ferrex and Porrex, act IV, scene ii, lines 1274–7
- A weave of three or more strands of fibers, ribbons, cords or hair often for decoration.
- The physician should evaluate for a history of tight ponytails, buns, chignons, braids, twists, weaves, cornrows, dreadlocks, sisterlocks, and hair wefts in addition to the usage of religious hair coverings.2021, Becky S. Li, Howard I. Maibach, Ethnic Skin and Hair and Other Cultural Considerations, page 154
- A stranded wire composed of a number of smaller wires twisted together.
- A tubular sheath made of braided strands of metal placed around a central cable for shielding against electromagnetic interference.
- A caprice or outburst of passion or anger.
- Let the maide learne none uncleanly words, or wanton, or uncomely gesture and moving of the body, no not so much as when she is yet ignorant what shee doth, and innocent; for shee shall doe the same, when shee is growne bigger and of more discretion, […] And oftentimes such braides come uppon them...1540, Juan Luis Vives, chapter 2, in Richard Hyrde, transl., Instruction of a Christian Woman
- Given two sets of n points on corresponding positions on two parallel lines, a braid is a unique set of crossings (over or under) between n strands that connect each point on one line to a point on the other line such that all points represent the terminus of one and only one strand and the traversal of any strand from a starting point to an ending point never moves further away from the from the ending point.
- We introduce braids via their historical roots and uses, make connections with knot theory and present the mathematical theory of braids through the braid group.2009, Mitchell A. Berger, Louis H. Kauffman, Renzo L. Ricca, Lectures on Topological Fluid Mechanics, page 1
- In order to characterise the structure and complexity of a braid different numbers or topological invariants can be calculated.2012, A. T. Skjeltorp, Tamas Vicsek, Complexity from Microscopic to Macroscopic Scales, page 144
- A wicker guard for protecting newly grafted trees.
- A moment, stound.
- A turn of work, job.
- A trick; deception.
Adjective
braid (comparative more braid, superlative most braid)
Noun (2)
braid (plural braids)
Proper noun capitalized: Braid
Braid
- A surname.
braid meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
braid in Hindi
- hairstyle
- चुटिया cuṭiyā
braid in Tamil
- சடை, பின்னலிடு, பின்னல், புரிகுழல், முடை, ஒடுங்கியபட்டி
braid in Marathi
- braid
- वेणी veṇī
braid in Urdu
- to braid
- باندھنا bāndhnā
More languagesFewer languages
- braid in Telugu
- జడ jaḍa
- braid in Malayalam
- മുടി പിന്നുക, മുടി കെട്ടിവയ്ക്കുന്ന ചരട്
- braid in Kannada
- ಹೆಣೆ, ಎಣೆಗಂಟು, ಎಣಗಂಟು
- braid in Gujarati
- વેણી
- braid in Odia
- ବେଣୀ
- braid in Sanskrit
- वेणी veṇī, वेणि veṇi, वेणिका veṇikā, रज्जु rajju
- braid in Nepali
- ब्रेइड
- braid in Arabic
- ضَفَّرَ ḍaffara, ضَفَرَ ḍafara, جَدِيلَة jadīla, ضَفِيرَة ḍafīra
- braid in Persian
- بافتن bâftan, تافتن tāftan, گیس بافت gis-bâft, گیس gis
- braid in Thai
- ถัก tàk, เปีย bpiia
- braid in Vietnamese
- bím tóc
Examples of braid in a sentence
- She wears her hair in braids.
- Braid it together, tie it to the window bars, and twist.
- She French braided his forelock, and wrapped white tape around the bottom of each thick braid.
Synonyms of braid
Forms of braid
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | braids |
| present participle | braiding |
| past participle | braided |
| past | braided |
| alternative form (obsolete) | brayde |
| alternative form (obsolete) | breyde |
| alternative form (obsolete) | broid |
| Noun | |
| plural | braids |
| alternative form | brade |
| alternative form | brad |
| alternative form | bread |
| alternative form | bred |
| alternative form | breid |
| alternative form | breyd |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more braid |
| superlative | most braid |
Origin of braid
From Middle English braiden, breided, bræiden, from Old English breġdan (“to move quickly, pull, shake, swing, throw (wrestling), draw (sword), drag; bend, weave, braid, knit, join together; change color, vary, be transformed; bind, knot; move, be pulled; flash”), from Proto-West Germanic *bregdan, from Proto-Germanic *bregdaną (“to flicker, flutter, jerk, tug, twitch, flinch, move, swing”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēḱ-, *bʰrēǵ- (“to shine, shimmer”). Cognate with Scots Scots brade, Scots braid (“to move quickly or suddenly”), Saterland Frisian braidje (“to knit”), West Frisian breidzje, Dutch breien (“to knit”), Low German breiden, German breiden, Bavarian bretten (“to move quickly, twitch”), Icelandic bregða (“to move quickly, jerk”), Faroese bregða (“to move quickly, react swiftly; to draw (sword)”) and Faroese bregda (“to plaid, braid, twist, twine”).
From Middle English brede, bræd, bred, from Old English bred (“board, plank, tablet, table”), from Proto-West Germanic *bred, from Proto-Germanic *bredą (“board, plank”), e-grade byform of *burdą (“board, plank”). Cognate with Scots bred, braid, brad (“board, plank, wooden tablet”), Saterland Frisian Brääd (“board, plank”), West Frisian bret (“board, plank”), Dutch bred, berd (“plank, table”), German Low German Bredd (“board, plank”), German Brett (“board, plank”), Danish bræt (“board, plank”)..
Words formed from braid
Phrases with braid
Words that rhyme with braid
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- blockade
- cade
- fade
- glade
- raid
- upbraid
- abrade
- crusade
- esplanade
- invade
- lade
- unlaid
- upgrade
- brigade
- brocade
- cavalcade
- colonnade
- displayed
- glissade
- grenade
- paid
- palisade
- unlade
- afraid
- ambuscade
- arcade
- corrade
- degrade
- enfilade
- evade
- jade
- lemonade
- made
- maid
- persuade
- pomade
- spade
- unmade
- aide
- cannonade
- carbonade
- carronade
- clade
- cockade
- Dade
- decayed
- dragonnade
- embayed
Questions about braid
- What does braid mean?
- Braid means to make a sudden movement with, to jerk.
- What is braid in Hindi?
- Braid in Hindi is चुटिया (cuṭiyā). See Braid meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is braid?
- Braid can be a verb, a noun, an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce braid?
- Braid is pronounced /bɹeɪd/.
- What is the past tense of braid?
- The past tense of braid is braided.
Words near braid in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: braid (page history and authors); Braid (page history and authors); braid (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); वेणी (Marathi) (page history and authors); باندھنا (Urdu) (page history and authors); braid (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); braid (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); braid (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); braid (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); braid (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-braid.ogg.
Cite this entry: “braid.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/braid. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.