brake

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brake1

▶noun a device for slowing or stopping a moving vehicle, typically by applying pressure to the wheels. ▶verb slow or stop a moving vehicle using a brake.

– origin C18: of unknown origin.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brake2

▶noun historical an open horse-drawn carriage with four wheels.

– origin C19: var. of break2.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brake3

▶noun

• 1 a toothed instrument used for crushing flax and hemp.

• 2 (also brake harrow) a heavy machine formerly used for breaking up large lumps of earth.

– origin ME: perh. rel. to break1.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brake4

▶noun a thicket.

– origin OE bracu (orig. in the pl. in fearnbraca ‘thickets of fern’), rel. to Mid. Low Ger. brake ‘branch, stump’.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brake5

▶noun a coarse fern of warm countries, typically with fronds divided into long segments. [Genus Pteris.]

■ archaic bracken.

– origin ME: perh. an abbrev. of bracken (interpreted as pl.).

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
brake6

archaic past of break1.