[Perhaps a. OF. brac, oblique case of bras an arm; cf. F. braquer le timon to turn the rudder, braquer un canon to point a cannon.]
1. A lever or handle for working a machine.
† a. The winch of a crossbow (only in phrase ‘bows of brake’); hence a crossbow, ballista, or similar engine. Obs. exc. Hist.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 3276. And wyþ boȝes eke of brake for to schute þykke.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 293. Setteþ bowes of brake and brasene gonnes.
c. 1440. Partonope, 1149. The bowes of brake are bent in hast.
1552. Huloet, Brake, or crosbowe, ballista.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXI. xi. 400 g. With ordinance of quarell shot, brakes, and other artillerie.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, XVIII. xliii. 324. Not rammes, not mightie brakes, not slings alone.
1840. Browning, Sordello, IV. 372. Arbalist, catapult, brake, mangonel.
b. The handle of a pump.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Seamen, 12. The pumpes brake. Ibid. (1627), Seaman’s Gram., ii. 8. The handle we call the brake.
1762–9. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 466. At either pump they ply the clanking brake.
1831. Lardner, Pneumat., vi. 314. The piston is worked … in common pumps by a lever, called the brake.
c. A lever forming part of the apparatus for boring coal.
1851. Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh., 10. A Brake … consists of a lever … 12 feet long; the fulcrum … 2 feet from the end above the bore-hole.
1855. G. Greenwell, Mining Eng., 109. A brake is a simple lever … having an iron crook attached from which the [boring] rods are suspended by a piece of rope.
2. Comb., as brake-pump, a pump worked by a brake; brake-sieve (Mining), a rectangular sieve worked by a lever or brake.
1881. Daily Tel., 28 Jan., 1/3. A couple of men came up and laid hold of the brake pump.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Brake-sieve, a jigger, operated by a hand-lever.
