ROCK BRAKE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rock brake mean? 

• ROCK BRAKE (noun)
  The noun ROCK BRAKE has 3 senses:

1. any of several small lithophytic ferns of tropical and warm temperate regions

2. dwarf deciduous lithophytic ferns

3. chiefly lithophytic or epiphytic fern of North America and east Asia

  Familiarity information: ROCK BRAKE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ROCK BRAKE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Any of several small lithophytic ferns of tropical and warm temperate regions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

cliff-brake; cliff brake; rock brake

Hypernyms ("rock 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)

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

coffee fern; Pellaea andromedifolia (evergreen fern of California and Baja California)

Pellaea atropurpurea; purple rock brake (very short shallowly creeping North American fern usually growing on cliffs or walls and having dark glossy leaf axes)

bird's-foot fern; Pellaea mucronata; Pellaea ornithopus (cliff brake of California and Baja California having purple-brown leafstalks)

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

genus Pellaea; Pellaea (genus of chiefly small rock-loving ferns; in some classification systems it is placed in the family Polypodiaceae or Adiantaceae)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Dwarf deciduous lithophytic ferns

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Hypernyms ("rock 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)

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

American parsley fern; American rock brake; Cryptogramma acrostichoides (rock-inhabiting fern of northern North America growing in massive tufts and having fronds resembling parsley)

Cryptogramma crispa; European parsley fern; mountain parsley fern (fern of Europe and Asia Minor having short slender rhizome and densely tufted bright green fronds resembling parsley)

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

Cryptogramma; genus Cryptogramma (sometimes placed in family Polypodiaceae or Cryptogrammataceae)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Chiefly lithophytic or epiphytic fern of North America and east Asia

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

American wall fern; Polypodium virgianum; rock brake; rock polypody

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

polypody (any of numerous ferns of the genus Polypodium)