a device on a vehicle, bicycle, or machine that slows or stops movement by creating friction
The cyclist squeezed the brake to slow down before the corner.
The car's brakes screeched loudly in the traffic jam.
✦ Middle English, from Old Northern French ‘brac’ meaning ‘a lever’; later applied to stopping mechanisms for wagons and then automobiles.
to slow down or stop a moving vehicle or machine by using its brake
She braked suddenly when a dog ran into the road.
Remember to brake gently on icy roads.
✦ From the noun ‘brake’; first recorded as a verb in the late 18th century when horse-drawn vehicles adopted mechanical brakes.
a large coarse fern, or a thicket filled with such ferns
The hikers rested in the shade of a dense brake of ferns.
Deer often hide in the brakes near the riverbank.
✦ Old English ‘bracu’ meaning ‘fern’; related to Old Norse ‘brækja’. The sense of ‘thicket’ grew from the plant’s tendency to form dense patches.
