coaster brake
coaster brake noun: a special rear hub for a bicycle that functions as a brake when the user pedals backwards, and which allows the bicycle to roll without forcing the pedals to turn.
Noun
coaster brake (plural coaster brakes)
- A special rear hub for a bicycle that functions as a brake when the user pedals backwards, and which allows the bicycle to roll without forcing the pedals to turn.
- Billy slammed on his coaster brakes and said "anybody wanna go on up to Greasy Lake?"1973, Bruce Springsteen, “Spirit in the Night”, in Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
- The coaster brake is one of the three types of braking mechanism developed to slow down and stop a bike safely and efficiently. This mechanism quickly gained in popularity in the USA, Germany and the Netherlands in the 1890s and is still used for upright and children's bicycles.2017, Suze Clemitson, A History of Cycling in 100 Objects, Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 54
- Synonyms:
- back pedal brake, foot brake
Synonyms of coaster brake
Forms of coaster brake
| plural | coaster brakes |
|---|
Questions about coaster brake
- What does coaster brake mean?
- Coaster brake means a special rear hub for a bicycle that functions as a brake when the user pedals backwards, and which allows the bicycle to roll without forcing the pedals to turn.
- What part of speech is coaster brake?
- Coaster brake is a noun.
- What is the plural of coaster brake?
- The plural of coaster brake is coaster brakes.
Words near coaster brake in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: coaster brake (page history and authors). 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.
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Cite this entry: “coaster brake.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coaster_brake. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.