Word.ws English Dictionary

brake

/bɹeɪk/

brake noun: 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. Also the simple past of break.

brake: a device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although...
Image: Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

brake (plural brakes)

  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.
    • She slammed the brakes when she saw a child run in front of the car.
    • You’re pressing the brakes too hard—try just squeezing them.
    1. The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle
      • Give the car a quick brake.
    2. 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. (figuratively) Something used to retard or stop some action, process etc.
  2. An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
    1. (obsolete) The winch of a crossbow.
  3. The handle of a pump.
    Synonyms:
    swipe
  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 frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing it.
    Synonyms:
    trave
  6. 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
  7. A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.
  8. A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.
    • shooting-brake
    • It had been arranged as part of the day’s programme that Mr. Cooke was to drive those who wished to go over the Rise in his new brake.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC
  9. That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.

Verb (1)

brake (third-person singular simple present brakes, present participle braking, simple past and past participle braked)

  1. (intransitive) To operate a brake or brakes.
    • Auxiliaries and ancillaries are comprehensive, and include a Westinghouse motor-driven recriprocating compressor used for locomotive braking and general service air, two rotary exhauster sets for train brakes when hauling passenger or fitted freight trains, and an oil-fired train heating boiler.1950 November, “Mixed-Traffic Diesel-Electric Locomotives for Ireland”, in Railway Magazine, page 781
  2. (intransitive) To be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking.

Noun (2)

brake (countable and uncountable, plural brakes)

  1. Any fern in the genus Pteris.
  2. Bracken (Pteridium spp.).

Noun (3)

brake (plural brakes)

  1. A thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc.
    • Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough, / To shelter thee from tempest and from rain.1593, [William Shakespeare], Venus and Adonis, London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC
    • He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone.1808 February 22, Walter Scott, “(please specify the introduction or canto number, or chapter name)”, in Marmion; a Tale of Flodden Field, Edinburgh: […] J[ames] Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald...

Noun (4)

brake (plural brakes)

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

Verb (2)

brake (third-person singular simple present brakes, present participle braking, simple past and past participle braked)

  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.

Noun (5)

brake (plural brakes)

  1. (obsolete) A cage.
  2. (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

Proper noun capitalized: Brake

Brake (plural Brakes)

  1. A surname.

Also used as

brake is also the simple past of break.

brake meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

brake in Hindi

device used to slow or stop a vehicle
ब्रेक brek

brake in Urdu

device used to slow or stop a vehicle
بْریک brek

brake in Bengali

device used to slow or stop a vehicle
ব্রেক brek

brake in Malayalam

ബ്രേക്കുചെയ്യുക
More languagesFewer languages
brake in Odia
ବ୍ରେକ
brake in Tagalog
preno, pumreno, prumeno
brake in Arabic
فَرَمَلَة faramala, مِكْبَح mikbaḥ, فَرْمَلَ farmala, َكَبَح akabaḥ
brake in Malay
brek
brake in Indonesian
rem
brake in Thai
เบรก brèek
brake in Vietnamese
phanh, thắng, hãm
brake in Myanmar
ဘရိတ် bha.rit

Examples of brake in a sentence

  • The car behind was following too close and could not brake in time.
  • He jacked the car so that he could replace the brake pads.
  • Remember to turn the rotors when replacing the brake shoes, or they will wear out unevenly.

All 40 example sentences with brake

Synonyms of brake

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of brake

Forms of brake

Noun
pluralbrakes
alternative form (rare)break
Verb
third-person singular presentbrakes
present participlebraking
past participlebraked
pastbraked
Proper noun
pluralBrakes

Plural of brake: brakes

Origin of brake

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”).

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

From Old English *bracu, attested in a plural compound 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”).

Words formed from brake

Phrases with brake

38 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with brake

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about brake

What does brake mean?
Brake means 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.
What is brake in Hindi?
Brake in Hindi is ब्रेक (brek). See Brake meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is brake?
Brake can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce brake?
Brake is pronounced /bɹeɪk/.
What is the plural of brake?
The plural of brake is brakes.

Words near brake in the dictionary

  1. Braj
  2. Braj Bhasha
  3. Brajabuli
  4. Brajesh
  5. brak
  6. brake
  7. brake assemblies
  8. brake assembly
  9. brake bias
  10. brake biases
  11. brake block

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brake (page history and authors); Brake (page history and authors); brake (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); brake (Odia, 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-brake.ogg.

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