BRAKE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does brake mean? 

• BRAKE (noun)
  The noun BRAKE has 5 senses:

1. a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle

2. any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants

3. large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan

4. an area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant

5. anything that slows or hinders a process

  Familiarity information: BRAKE used as a noun is common.

• BRAKE (verb)
  The verb BRAKE has 2 senses:

1. stop travelling by applying a brake

2. cause to stop by applying the brakes

  Familiarity information: BRAKE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BRAKE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("brake" is a kind of...):

constraint; restraint (a device that retards something's motion)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "brake"):

brake system; brakes (a braking device consisting of a combination of interacting parts that work to slow a motor vehicle)

coaster brake (a brake on a bicycle that engages with reverse pressure on the pedals)

emergency; emergency brake; hand brake; parking brake (a brake operated by hand; usually operates by mechanical linkage)

power brake (a brake on an automobile that magnifies a small force applied to the brake pedal into a proportionately larger force applied to slow or stop the vehicle)

Holonyms ("brake" is a part of...):

wheeled vehicle (a vehicle that moves on wheels and usually has a container for transporting things or people)

Derivation:

brake (cause to stop by applying the brakes)

brake (stop travelling by applying a brake)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("brake" is a kind of...):

fern (any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores)

Holonyms ("brake" is a member of...):

genus Pteris; Pteris (large genus of terrestrial ferns of tropics and subtropics; sometimes placed in family Polypodiaceae)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

bracken; brake; pasture brake; Pteridium aquilinum

Hypernyms ("brake" is a kind of...):

fern (any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores)

Holonyms ("brake" is a member of...):

genus Pteridium; Pteridium (a genus of ferns belonging to the family Dennstaedtiaceae)

Derivation:

braky (abounding with bracken)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("brake" is a kind of...):

brush; brushwood; coppice; copse; thicket (a dense growth of bushes)

Derivation:

braky (covered with brambles and ferns and other undergrowth)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Anything that slows or hinders a process

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

new legislation will put the brakes on spending

Hypernyms ("brake" is a kind of...):

constraint; restraint (a device that retards something's motion)

• BRAKE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they brake    ... he / she / it brakes   
Past simple: braked   
Past participle: braked   
-ing form: braking   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Stop travelling by applying a brake

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

We had to brake suddenly when a chicken crossed the road

Hypernyms (to "brake" is one way to...):

halt; stop (come to a halt, stop moving)

Verb group:

brake (cause to stop by applying the brakes)

Domain category:

driving (the act of controlling and steering the movement of a vehicle or animal)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Sentence example:

These cars won't brake

Derivation:

brake (a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to stop by applying the brakes

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

brake the car before you go into a curve

Hypernyms (to "brake" is one way to...):

stop (cause to stop)

Verb group:

brake (stop travelling by applying a brake)

Domain category:

driving (the act of controlling and steering the movement of a vehicle or animal)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "brake"):

skid (apply a brake or skid to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

brake (a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle)

 Context examples 

The lag would act like a brake on Pluto, causing its rotation to slow while transferring that rotational energy to Charon, making it speed up and move farther away from Pluto.

(Cracks in Pluto's moon could indicate it once had an underground ocean, NASA)

As stars mature, the braking mechanism from magnetic fields more easily slows the spin rate of the thin, outermost layer of big stars than the comparatively thick, turbulent bulk of small stars.

(Kepler Watches Stellar Dancers in the Pleiades Cluster, NASA)

The newly discovered cells belong to a class of neurons known as inhibitory neurons, which put the brakes on the activity of other neurons in the brain.

(Mysterious New Type of Human Brain Cell Discovered, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

“If he doesn’t brake, why should I? Now, my darlings, one good spurt, and we’ll show them the colour of our tailboard.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The very next train roared from the tunnel as before, but slowed in the open, and then, with a creaking of brakes, pulled up immediately beneath us.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The activity of the immune system is another rhythmic function controlled by clock genes, which act as a necessary brake this activity.

(New study sheds fresh light on the genetic mechanisms involved in sepsis, the leading cause of death in ICUs, University of Granada)

Birds began singing in brake and copse: birds were faithful to their mates; birds were emblems of love.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Cancer evades the immune system by various means, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, which apply the brake on the immune response against a tumor.

(Immune Stimulant Molecule Protects against Cancer Development, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

But the long cactus-strewn levels still stretched away, empty and bare, to the distant line of the cane-brake.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Meg colored behind the brake, but asked no questions and looked across the river with the same expectant expression which Mr. Brooke had worn when he told the story of the knight.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)