1. A braking device consisting of a combination of interacting parts that work to slow a motor vehicle
   "the mechanic's failure to check the brakes";
   - brake system

1. A device for slowing or stopping a vehicle
   "He slammed on the brakes to avoid hitting the deer"
    
2. Anything that slows or hinders a process
   "she was not ready to put the brakes on her life with a marriage"; "new legislation will put the brakes on spending"
    
3. Any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants
   "The brake fern's delicate fronds added a tropical feel to the indoor space"
    
4. Large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan
   "pasture brake covered the entire hillside";
   - bracken, pasture brake, Pteridium aquilinum
    
5. An area thickly overgrown usually with one kind of plant
   "The forest gave way to a brake of ferns"
    
6. (historical) an open four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage
   "The ladies took a leisurely ride through the park in a brake"

1. Cause to stop by applying the brakes
   "brake the car before you go into a curve"
    
2. Stop travelling by applying a brake
   "We had to brake suddenly when a chicken crossed the road"

Sounds like: breaks

Type of: brush, brushwood, constraint, coppice, copse, fern, halt, restraint, stop, thicket

Part of: automotive vehicle, genus Pteridium, genus Pteris, motor vehicle, Pteridium, Pteris, wheeled vehicle

Encyclopedia: Brakes