Other forms: brakes, braking, braked
The brake is what you press to make a vehicle slow down and stop. The middle pedal, and the most important one.
Cars have several kinds, since the handbrake holds a parked car and disc brakes do the work at speed, and a bicycle has brakes on the handlebars. The verb is to brake, and braking hard is what leaves marks on a road. The figurative use is about slowing things down, so putting the brakes on a project means halting it. Take care with the spelling, since break is a different word entirely.
1nounbrakeA device for slowing or stopping a vehicle.
“The brakes squealed at the junction.”
2verbusingTo slow down using a brake.
“He braked hard and the car stopped short.”
Also accepted in games: brakes
Proto-Germanic
*brekaną — to break
Middle Low German
brake — nose ring, curb, flax brake
English, today
brake
Origin; possibly from Middle Dutch - or Middle Low German brake (“nose ring, curb, flax brake”), which according to Watkins is related to brake#Etymology_4 and from Proto-Germanic brekaną (“to break”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA