brake, n. [OE. brake fern; cf. AS. bracce fern, LG. brake willow bush, Da. bregne fern, G. brach fallow; prob. orig. the growth on rough, broken ground, fr. the root of E. break. See Break, v. t., cf. Bracken, and 2d Brake, n.].

A fern of the genus Pteris, esp. the Pteris aquilina, common in almost all countries. It has solitary stems dividing into three principal branches. Less properly: Any fern. [1913 Webster]
A thicket; a place overgrown with shrubs and brambles, with undergrowth and ferns, or with canes. [1913 Webster]
"Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough,
To shelter thee from tempest and from rain." [1913 Webster]

"He stayed not for brake, and he stopped not for stone." [1913 Webster]

Cane brake, a thicket of canes. See Canebrake.

brake, n. [OE. brake; cf. LG. brake an instrument for breaking flax, G. breche, fr. the root of E. break. See Break, v. t., and cf. Breach.].

An instrument or machine to break or bruise the woody part of flax or hemp so that it may be separated from the fiber. [1913 Webster]
An extended handle by means of which a number of men can unite in working a pump, as in a fire engine. [1913 Webster]
A baker's kneading though. Johnson. [1913 Webster]
A sharp bit or snaffle. [1913 Webster]
"Pampered jades . . . which need nor break nor bit." [1913 Webster]
A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him; also, an inclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc. [1913 Webster]
"A horse . . . which Philip had bought . . . and because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of iron bars." [1913 Webster]
That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn. [1913 Webster]
An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista. [1913 Webster]
A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after plowing; a drag. [1913 Webster]
A piece of mechanism for retarding or stopping motion by friction, as of a carriage or railway car, by the pressure of rubbers against the wheels, or of clogs or ratchets against the track or roadway, or of a pivoted lever against a wheel or drum in a machine. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses. [1913 Webster]
An ancient instrument of torture. Holinshed. [1913 Webster]

Air brake. See Air brake, in the Vocabulary. -- Brake beam or Brake bar, the beam that connects the brake blocks of opposite wheels. -- Brake block. (a) The part of a brake holding the brake shoe. (b) A brake shoe. -- Brake shoe or Brake rubber, the part of a brake against which the wheel rubs. -- Brake wheel, a wheel on the platform or top of a car by which brakes are operated. -- Continuous brake . See under Continuous.

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OXFORD DICTIONARY

brake, n. & v.
--n.
1 (often in pl.) a device for checking the motion of a mechanism, esp. a wheel or vehicle, or for keeping it at rest.
2 anything that has the effect of hindering or impeding (shortage of money was a brake on their enthusiasm).
--v.
1 intr. apply a brake.
2 tr. retard or stop with a brake.

Idiom

brake block a block used to hold a brake shoe. brake drum a cylinder attached to a wheel on which the brake shoe presses to brake. brake fluid fluid used in a hydraulic brake system. brake horsepower the power of an engine reckoned in terms of the force needed to brake it. brake lining a strip of fabric which increases the friction of the brake shoe. brake shoe a long curved block which presses on the brake drum to brake. brake van Brit. a railway coach or vehicle from which the train's brakes can be controlled.

Derivative

brakeless adj.

brake, n. a large estate car.

brake, n. & v.
--n.
1 a toothed instrument used for crushing flax and hemp.
2 (in full brake harrow) a heavy kind of harrow for breaking up large lumps of earth.
--v.tr. crush (flax or hemp) by beating it.

brake, n.
1 a thicket.
2 brushwood.

brake, n. bracken.

brake, archaic past of BREAK(1).

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THESAURUS

brake

arrest, backpedal, backwater, bar, bearing rein, bit, block, boscage, bosket, bring to, bring up short, canebrake, ceja, chain, chamisal, chaparral, check, checkmate, checkrein, chock, clip the wings, clog, constraint, control, coppice, copse, copsewood, countercheck, covert, curb, curb bit, cut short, dam, damper, deadlock, decelerate, delay, detain, doorstop, drag, drag sail, draw rein, drift anchor, drift sail, drogue, ease off, ease up, fetter, freeze, frith, halt, hold back, hold in check, hold up, holdback, impede, keep back, let down, let up, lose ground, lose momentum, lose speed, martingale, moderate, motte, obstruct, pelham, pull up, put paid to, reef, rein, rein in, relax, remora, restraint, restriction, retard, scotch, sea anchor, set back, shackle, slack off, slack up, slacken, slow, slow down, slow up, snaffle, spoke, stalemate, stall, stay, stem, stem the tide, stop, stop cold, stop dead, stop short, stymie, take in sail, thicket, thickset, throttle down, trammel

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ROGET THESAURUS

brake

Prison

N prison, prison house, jail, gaol, cage, coop, den, cell, stronghold, fortress, keep, donjon, dungeon, Bastille, oubliette, bridewell, house of correction, hulks, tollbooth, panopticon, penitentiary, guardroom, lockup, hold, round house, watch house, station house, sponging house, station, house of detention, black hole, pen, fold, pound, inclosure, isolation (exclusion), penal settlement, penal colony, bilboes, stocks, limbo, quod, calaboose, chauki, choky, thana, workhouse, Newgate, Fleet, Marshalsea, King's Bench, Queen's Bench, bond, bandage, irons, pinion, gyve, fetter, shackle, trammel, manacle, handcuff, straight jacket, strait jacket, strait-jacket, strait-waistcoat, hopples, vice, vise, yoke, collar, halter, harness, muzzle, gag, bit, brake, curb, snaffle, bridle, rein, reins, bearing rein, martingale, leading string, tether, picket, band, guy, chain, cord, cavesson, hackamore, headstall, jaquima, lines, ribbons, bolt, deadbolt, bar, lock, police lock, combination lock, padlock, rail, wall, stone wall, paling, palisade, fence, picket fence, barbed wire fence, Cyclone fence, stockade fence, chain-link fence, barrier, barricade, drag.

Vegetable

N vegetable, vegetable kingdom, flora, verdure, plant, tree, shrub, bush, creeper, herb, herbage, grass, annual, perennial, biennial, triennial, exotic, timber, forest, wood, woodlands, timberland, hurst, frith, holt, weald, park, chase, greenwood, brake, grove, copse, coppice, bocage, tope, clump of trees, thicket, spinet, spinney, underwood, brushwood, scrub, boscage, bosk, ceja, chaparal, motte, arboretum, bush, jungle, prairie, heath, heather, fern, bracken, furze, gorse, whin, grass, turf, pasture, pasturage, turbary, sedge, rush, weed, fungus, mushroom, toadstool, lichen, moss, conferva, mold, growth, alfalfa, alfilaria, banyan, blow, blowth, floret, petiole, pin grass, timothy, yam, yew, zinnia, foliage, branch, bough, ramage, stem, tigella, spray, leaf, flower, blossom, bine, flowering plant, timber tree, fruit tree, pulse, legume, vegetable, vegetal, vegetive, vegitous, herbaceous, herbal, botanic, sylvan, silvan, arborary, arboreous, arborescent, arborical, woody, grassy, verdant, verdurous, floral, mossy, lignous, ligneous, wooden, leguminous, vosky, cespitose, turf-like, turfy, endogenous, exogenous, green-robed senators of mighty woods, this is the forest primeval.