| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| brake2 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  br k |
| NOUN: | 1. A toothed device for crushing and beating flax or hemp. 2. A heavy harrow for breaking clods of earth. 3. An apparatus for kneading large amounts of dough. 4. A machine for bending and folding sheet metal. | | TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: braked, brak·ing, brakes
1. To crush (flax or hemp) in a toothed device. 2. To break up (clods of earth) with a harrow. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Middle Dutch, from Middle Low German. See bhreg- in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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