Past tense of brake; to slow down or stop a vehicle or moving object by applying brakes.
From 'brake' (Old English origin, possibly from 'bracan' meaning to break or shatter). The '-ed' suffix marks the simple past tense.
The word 'brake' might come from the same root as 'break' because early brakes literally worked by breaking friction against wheels—they didn't slow you down smoothly like modern ones!
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