brake

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a restraint used to slow or stop a vehicle
  2. noun any of various ferns of the genus Pteris having pinnately compound leaves and including several popular houseplants
  3. noun large coarse fern often several feet high; essentially weed ferns; cosmopolitan

Etymology

Origin uncertain; possibly from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German brake (“nose ring, curb, flax brake”), which according to Watkins is related to sense 4 and from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”).

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