Library / English Dictionary

BRAKE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (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:

Anything that slows or hinders a process

Example:

new legislation will put the brakes on spending

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

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

Sense 3

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 4

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

bracken; brake; pasture brake; Pteridium aquilinum

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

Derivation:

braky (abounding with bracken)

Sense 5

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)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause to stop by applying the brakes

Example:

brake the car before you go into a curve

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Stop travelling by applying a brake

Example:

We had to brake suddenly when a chicken crossed the road

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

A tiny stream flowed out of a dense fern-brake, slipped down a mossy-lipped stone, and ran across the path at their feet.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

In the current work, the researchers used a neurotransmitter which acts as the ‘brake’ at the source of the seizure, essentially signalling to the neurons to stop firing and end the seizure.

(Electronic device implanted in the brain could stop seizures, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

The wounded deer dragging its fainting limbs to some untrodden brake, there to gaze upon the arrow which had pierced it, and to die, was but a type of me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The charged particles are carried along the star's magnetic fields, which overall exerts a braking effect on the rotation rate of the star.

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

If you think of all inhibitory neurons like brakes on a car, the rosehip neurons would let your car stop in very particular spots on your drive.

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

Immune checkpoint stimulators and inhibitors are major regulators of the immune system and work in a similar fashion to the "brake" and "gas" pedals in a vehicle.

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

The beetling head of the cliff projected over the cane-brake.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Margaret seemed to find it a little hard to tell hers, and waved a brake before her face, as if to disperse imaginary gnats, while she said slowly, I should like a lovely house, full of all sorts of luxurious things—nice food, pretty clothes, handsome furniture, pleasant people, and heaps of money.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And now, my readers, if ever I have any, I have brought you up the broad river, and through the screen of rushes, and down the green tunnel, and up the long slope of palm trees, and through the bamboo brake, and across the plain of tree-ferns.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He slowed down, but still without any intention of stopping until, as we came nearer, the hushed intent faces of the people at the garage door made him automatically put on the brakes.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)