What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Brake vs Spoke - What's the difference?

brake | spoke |

As nouns the difference between brake and spoke

is that brake is a fern; bracken or brake can be a thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc or brake can be a tool used for breaking flax or hemp or brake can be (label) an ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista or brake can be (obsolete) a cage while spoke is a ghost (spirit appearing after death).

As a verb brake

is to bruise and crush; to knead or brake can be to operate (a) brake(s) or brake can be (lb) (break).

brake

English

(brake)

Etymology 1

Apparently a shortened form of (bracken). (Compare (chick), (chicken).)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A fern; bracken.
  • Etymology 2

    Compare Middle Low German brake.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thicket, or an area overgrown with briers etc.
  • *
  • He halts, and searches with his eyes
    Among the scatter'd rocks:
    And now at distance can discern
    A stirring in a brake of fern
  • * Shakespeare
  • Rounds rising hillocks, brakes obscure and rough, / To shelter thee from tempest and from rain.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • He stayed not for brake , and he stopped not for stone.

    Etymology 3

    From (etyl) braeke.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A tool used for breaking flax or hemp.
  • A type of machine for bending sheet metal. (See .)
  • A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after ploughing; a drag.
  • Verb

    (brak)
  • To bruise and crush; to knead
  • The farmer's son brakes''' the flax while mother ' brakes the bread dough
  • To pulverise with a harrow
  • Derived terms
    * brakeage

    Etymology 4

    Origin uncertain.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (label) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
  • # (label) The winch of a crossbow.
  • The handle of a pump.
  • A device used to slow or stop the motion of a wheel, or of a vehicle, by friction; also, the controls or apparatus used to engage such a mechanism such as the pedal in a car.
  • # The act of braking, of using a brake to slow down a machine or vehicle
  • # (label) An apparatus for testing the power of a steam engine or other motor by weighing the amount of friction that the motor will overcome; a friction brake.
  • # (label) Something used to retard or stop some action, process etc.
  • A baker's kneading trough.
  • (Johnson)
  • A device used to confine or prevent the motion of an animal.
  • # A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him.
  • # An enclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc.
  • #* 1868 , March 7, The Illustrated London News , number 1472, volume 52, “Law and Police”, page 223:
  • He was shooting, and the field where the [cock-fighting] ring was verged on the shooting-brake where the rabbits were.
  • #* J. Brende
  • A horseand because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of iron bars.
  • # A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.
  • # A carriage for transporting shooting parties and their equipment.(w)
  • #*
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=It had been arranged as part of the day's programme that Mr. Cooke was to drive those who wished to go over the Rise in his new brake .}}
  • #*{{quote-book, year=1976, author=(Terrance Dicks)
  • , title=, chapter=1, page=11 , passage=A few moments later they heard the sound of an engine, and a muddy shooting brake appeared on the road behind them.}}
  • That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.
  • Derived terms
    * air brake * antilock brake * brake band * brake disc * brake drum * brake fluid * brake harrow * brake horsepower * brake lining * brakeman, brakesman * brake drum * brake pad * brake van * brake wheel * brakey * caliper brake * disc brake * emergency brake * foot brake * hand brake * parking brake * press brake
    Descendants
    * Portuguese:

    Verb

    (brak)
  • To operate (a) brake(s).
  • To be stopped or slowed (as if) by braking.
  • Etymology 5

    Origin uncertain.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A cage.
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 83:
  • Methods of applying pain were many and ingenious, in particular the ways of twisting, stretching and manipulating the body out of shape, normally falling under the catch-all term of the rack, or the brakes .

    Etymology 6

    Inflected forms.

    Verb

    (head)
  • (lb) (break)
  • * Exodus 32:3, KJV:
  • And all the people brake off the golden earrings

    Anagrams

    * * ----

    spoke

    English

    Etymology 1

    (etyl) spaca

    Noun

    (wikipedia spoke) (en noun)
  • A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim.
  • (nautical) A projecting handle of a steering wheel.
  • A rung of a ladder.
  • A device for fastening the wheel of a vehicle to prevent it from turning when going downhill.
  • Verb

    (spok)
  • To furnish (a wheel) with spokes.
  • Etymology 2

    Verb

    (head)
  • (speak)
  • Statistics

    *