handbrake

handbrake noun: a brake in a vehicle, set by hand, and usually locking on until released by hand, enabling its use when parked.

Noun

handbrake (plural handbrakes)

A brake in a vehicle, set by hand, and usually locking on until released by hand, enabling its use when parked.
- On arrival at Spiez, the locomotive (No. 206) was immediately uncoupled and drew ahead to enable an Italian through coach from Interlaken to Milan to be loose shunted (with passengers aboard and controlled by means of its handbrake) on to the front of the train.1953 August, J. G. Click, “The Lötschberg Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 515
The mechanism, particularly the locking hand-operated lever or foot-operated toggle lever in a motorcar or the hand-operated crank on a railcar, which is used to set and release such a brake.

handbrake (third-person singular simple present handbrakes, present participle handbraking, simple past and past participle handbraked)

Noun
plural	handbrakes
alternative form	hand brake
Verb
third-person singular present	handbrakes
present participle	handbraking
past participle	handbraked
past	handbraked

From hand + brake.

What does handbrake mean?: Handbrake means a brake in a vehicle, set by hand, and usually locking on until released by hand, enabling its use when parked.
What is handbrake in Bengali?: Handbrake in Bengali is হাত ব্রেক (hat brek). See Handbrake meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is handbrake?: Handbrake can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of handbrake?: The plural of handbrake is handbrakes.

Adapted from Wiktionary: handbrake (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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

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