brake

Meanings

Plural: brakes

Noun

• a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle
• any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants
• large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan
• an area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant
• anything that slows or hinders a process
  • "she wan not ready to put the brakes on her life with a marriage"
  • "new legislation will put the brakes on spending"
• A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
• The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle
• A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
• 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.
• A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
• Something used to retard or stop some action, process etc.
• A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, usually by friction (although other resistive forces, such as electromagnetic fields or aerodynamic drag, can also be used); also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
• An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
• An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
• The winch of a crossbow.
• The handle of a pump.
• A baker’s kneading trough.
• A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
• A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing it.
• A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
• An enclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc.
• A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
• A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.ᵂ
• A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
• A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.ᵂ
• That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.
• A fern; bracken (Pteridium).
• Any fern in the genus Pteris.
• A thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc.
• A type of machine for bending sheet metal. (See wikipedia.)
• A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods of earth after ploughing; a drag.
• A tool used for breaking flax or hemp.
• A cage.
• A type of torture instrument.

Verb

• stop travelling by applying a brake
  • "We had to brake suddenly when a chicken crossed the road"
• cause to stop by applying the brakes
  • "brake the car before you go into a curve"
• To operate a brake or brakes.
• To be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking.
• To bruise and crush; to knead.
• To pulverise with a harrow.
• simple past of break

Synonyms

bracken, cataract, pasture brake, Pteridium aquilinum, swipe, trave

Antonyms

accelerate, floor it, put the pedal to the metal, redline

Related Words

hackle, ripple, scutch, swingle