1. a device for slowing or stopping a vehicle or other moving mechanism by the absorption or transfer of the energy of momentum, usually by means of friction.
2. the drums, shoes, tubes, levers, etc., making up such a device on a vehicle.
3. anything that has a slowing or stopping effect.
4. a member of a bobsled team who operates the brake.
5. a tool or machine for breaking up flax or hemp, to separate the fiber.
6. a machine for bending sheet metal to a desired shape.
7. an old instrument of torture.

8. to slow or stop by means of or as if by means of a brake.
9. to furnish with brakes.
10. to process (flax or hemp) by crushing it in a brake.

11. to use or run a brake.
12. to stop or slow upon being braked.
13. to run a hoisting machine.

1. a place overgrown with bushes, brambles, or cane.

1. any of several large or coarse ferns, especially the bracken, Pteridium aquilinum.

1. simple past tense of break.

• a device for slowing or stopping a vehicle, wheel, shaft, etc, or for keeping it stationary, esp by means of friction
• (as modifier)
2. a machine or tool for crushing or breaking flax or hemp to separate the fibres
3. a heavy harrow for breaking up clods
4. short for brake van
5. short for shooting brake
6. an open four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage
7. an obsolete word for rack 1 (def. 4)

8. to slow down or cause to slow down, by or as if by using a brake
9. to crush or break up using a brake

1. an area of dense undergrowth, shrubs, brushwood, etc; thicket

1. another name for bracken (def. 1) See also rock brake

1. archaic, mainly biblical a past tense of break

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