braking

UK: /ˈbreɪkɪŋ/

From the verb brake: (⇒ conjugate)

braking is: ⓘ

v pres p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026

brake¹ /breɪk/   n., v., braked, brak•ing. 
n. [countable]

1. Automotive a device for slowing or stopping a vehicle or other moving mechanism, usually by friction.
2. Automotive brakes, [plural] the drums, shoes, etc., making up such a device on a vehicle:
   The brakes need adjusting.
3. anything that has a slowing or stopping effect:
   He seemed to act like a brake on our momentum.

v. 

4. to slow or stop by or as if by a brake: [~ + object]
   He braked the car with a lurch.
   [no object]
   She braked carefully in the snow.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026

brake¹  (brāk), n., v., braked, brak•ing. 
n. 

1. Automotive 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. Automotive brakes, the drums, shoes, tubes, levers, etc., making up such a device on a vehicle.
3. anything that has a slowing or stopping effect.
4. Sport Also called brakeman. a member of a bobsled team who operates the brake.
5. Textiles Also called breaker. a tool or machine for breaking up flax or hemp, to separate the fiber.
6. Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgy Also called press brake. a machine for bending sheet metal to a desired shape.
7. [Obs.] an old instrument of torture.

v.t. 

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

v.i. 

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

• Middle Dutch, Middle Low German; akin to break
• late Middle English 1400–50

brake′less, adj. 
Synonyms

• 8. . halt, arrest, stay, restrain; curb, curtail.

brake²  (brāk), n. 

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

• Middle Low German brake thicket
• late Middle English (in phrase brake of fern thicket of fern) 1400–50

brake³  (brāk), n. 

1. Plant Biology any of several large or coarse ferns, esp. the bracken, Pteridium aquilinum.

• Middle English brake, probably by back formation from braken bracken, taken as plural 1275–1325

brake⁴  (brāk), v. [Archaic.]

1. pt. of break. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

brake / breɪk/ noun

1. (often plural) a device for slowing or stopping a vehicle, wheel, shaft, etc, or for keeping it stationary, esp by means of friction
   See also drum brake, disc brake, hydraulic brake, air brake, handbrake
2. a machine or tool for crushing or breaking flax or hemp to separate the fibres
3. Also called: brake harrow a heavy harrow for breaking up clods
4. short for brake van
5. short for shooting brake
6. an obsolete word for rack14

verb

1. to slow down or cause to slow down, by or as if by using a brake
2. (transitive) to crush or break up using a brake

Etymology: 18th Century: from Middle Dutch braeke; related to breken to break

ˈbrakeless adjective

brake / breɪk/ noun

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

Etymology: Old English bracu; related to Middle Low German brake, Old French bracon branch

brake / breɪk/ noun

1. another name for bracken1

brake / breɪk/ verb

1. 
   a past tense of break