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Broken vs Brake - What's the difference?

broken | brake |

As a proper noun broken

is (derogatory|slang) torres strait creole.

As a noun 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.

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).

broken

English

Verb

(head)
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Fragmented, in separate pieces.
  • # Fractured; having the bone in pieces.
  • My arm is broken !
  • the ground was littered with broken bones
  • # (label) Split or ruptured.
  • A dog bit my leg and now the skin is broken .
  • # Dashed, made up of short lines with small gaps between each one and the next.
  • # (label) Interrupted; not continuous.
  • #* (rfdate), , White Fang :
  • Then the circle would lie down again, and here and there a wolf would resume its broken nap.
  • # Five-eighths to seven-eighths obscured by clouds; incompletely covered by clouds.
  • Tomorrow: broken skies.
  • Breeched; violated; not kept.
  • broken''' promises of neutrality'', '''''broken''' vows'', ''the '''broken covenant
  • Non-functional; not functioning properly.
  • I think my doorbell broken .
  • # Disconnected, no longer open or carrying traffic.
  • # Badly designed or implemented.
  • This is the most broken application I've seen in a long time.
  • # Grammatically non-standard, especially as a result of being a non-native speaker.
  • # Not having gone in the way intended; saddening.
  • Oh man! That is just broken !
  • Completely defeated and dispirited; shattered; destroyed.
  • The bankruptcy and divorce, together with the death of his son, left him completely broken .
  • Having no money; bankrupt, broke.
  • (en)
  • (label) Uneven.
  • * 2005 , Will Cook, Until Darkness Disappears , page 54:
  • All that day they rode into broken land. The prairie with its grass and rolling hills was behind them, and they entered a sparse, dry, rocky country, full of draws and short cañons and ominous buttresses.
  • Overpowered; overly powerful; too powerful.
  • Usage notes

    * Nouns to which "broken" is often applied: glass, vase, cup, mirror, window, bone, wing, leg, arm, hand, foot, heart, egg, tool, sword, column, road, bridge, stick, device, machine, camera, TV, car, computer, promise, vow, law, trust, dream, relationship, friendship, love, family, marriage, bond, tie, silence, ground, land, circle, image, language, spirit, soul.

    Derived terms

    * a broken clock is right twice a day * broke * broken home * brokenly * brokenness * broken arrow * broken by design * broken language, broken English * broken heart, brokenhearted * broken in * broken promise * broken wind * heartbroken * housebroken * broken skin

    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

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