Word.ws English Dictionary

puts the brakes on

puts the brakes on is the third-person singular simple present indicative of put the brakes on.

Meaning of put the brakes on

Verb

put the brakes on (third-person singular simple present puts the brakes on, present participle putting the brakes on, simple past and past participle put the brakes on)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To stop (an event, action, or process) or to slow it down.
    • "[T]he fight I saw that day made the others look like a young ladies' quadrille. . . . [Y]ou could no more separate them two than you could put the brakes on a blame earthquake."1903, Frank Norris, “Two Hearts That Beat as One”, in A Deal in Wheat and Other Stories of the New and Old West
  2. (idiomatic, intransitive) To cease to perform one's current activity or to decrease one's level of activity.
    • "It would have been so easy for him to have the kids rolling on the floor, doubled up with laughter. So he had to put the brakes on at times."1989 July, Nancy Griffin, “Poetry Man: Robin Williams and Dead Poets Society”, in Premiere Magazine, retrieved 31 May 2015
    Synonyms:
    rein in

Questions about puts the brakes on

What is puts the brakes on the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Puts the brakes on is the third-person singular simple present indicative of put the brakes on.

Words near puts the brakes on in the dictionary

  1. puts the bee on
  2. puts the beggar on the gentleman
  3. puts the bite on
  4. puts the boot in
  5. puts the bottom rail on top
  6. puts the brakes on
  7. puts the cabosh on
  8. puts the cart before the horse
  9. puts the case
  10. puts the cat among the pigeons
  11. puts the change on someone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: puts the brakes on (page history and authors); put the brakes on (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: “puts the brakes on.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/puts_the_brakes_on. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.