Brake (meanings)

The word brake exists as an adjective, a noun and a verb. OED lists some seven nouns, one adjective and six verbs with the principal spelling brake. (Some writers confuse thenhomophones brake and brake. This is an error in current English, but over history, both spellings have been used for all the meanings listed in OED (and for the two nouns and one verb with the current spelling break).

Etymological note: Of two meanings recorded in OED for the derived noun breakage (both from 1888), the first, "The action of a brake in stopping a train", is listed under the headword brakeage | breakage, n.; the second - current - meaning, "the action or fact of breaking" (only listed as breakage, is not recorded before 1813.

• Users of AWE such as students of literature or history who may come cross some of the other meanings of these words, which are not very current, may like to see notes on some of the less familiar meanings:
  • Brake was the standard past tense form of the irregular verb 'to break', which is now always broke, until Early Modern English.
  • A brake can be
    • a
    • a

• • Special uses of the verb 'to break' include:
    • 'to break bread is 'to share a loaf' (and particularly in Christianity to the Last Supper, where Jesus "took bread, and blessed it, and brake {the old form of 'broke'] it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body" [Matthew 26: 26, AV]); break a note (or earlier a coin) is 'to obtain smaller units', 'to change it'; to break a bottle [usually of wine] is 'to open it', particularly in company as the start of a drinking session;