[Origin, possible connection with prec., and sequence of senses uncertain.]
† 1. A cage of iron or wooden bars; a trap; fig. a snare, difficulty, dilemma. Obs.
a. 1529. Skelton, Elynour Rum., 325. It was a stale to take The devyl in a brake.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke, Pref. 6 b. So should I in this matier stand in a streight brake.
1553. Brende, Q. Curtius, I. 10. Because of hys fercenes, kept him [Bucephalus] within a brake of iron barres.
1572. Forrest, Theoph., 1022. No more he myndede to come in his [the Devil’s] brake.
1625. Burges, Pers. Tithes, 79. He … sought to wind himselfe out of the brakes of Tithes due by Diuine Right.
1640. Shirley, Opportunity, II. i. Wks. 1833, III. 387 (N.). He is fallen into some brake, some wench has tied him by the legs.
2. A framework intended to hold anything steady; a frame in which a horse’s foot is placed when being shod; also in Ship-building (see quot.).
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., v. (1623), K ij. Then make a Brake behind the stoole of foure stakes, 2 two foot, and 2 foure feet long.
1869. Sir E. Reed, Shipbuild., xx. 436. The plate is heated and bent to the form of the bed or brake.
† b. fig. To set one’s face in a brake: to assume an immovable expression of countenance. Obs.
1607. Chapman, Bussy D’Amb., Plays, 1873, II. 8. Or (like a Strumpet) learne to set my lookes In an eternal Brake. Ibid. (1608), Byrons Trag., ibid. II. 280. See in how graue a Brake he sets his vizard.
1609. B. Jonson, Sil. Wom., IV. vi. (1616), 583. Some … that, haue their faces set in a brake!
† 3. An instrument of torture; a rack. Obs. exc. Hist. [Perh. this belongs rather to BRAKE sb.3]
1530. Palsgr., 463/1. I brake on a brake, or payne banke.
1539. T. Cromwell, in St. Papers Hen. VIII., I. 602. I am advised … to go the Toure, and see hym sett in the brakes.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., IV. xiii. 301. A daughter of the Duke of Exeter invented a brake or cruel rack.
1720. Stow’s Surv. (ed. Strype, 1754), I. I. xiv. 66/2. The Brake or rack, commonly called the Duke of Exeter’s daughter because he was the deviser of that torture.
1855. Browning, Ch. Roland, xxiv. That wheel, Or brake … that harrow fit to reel Men’s bodies out like silk?
† 4. A turner’s lathe. [Perh. a different word.]
c. 1570. Thynne, Pride & Lowl. (1841), 50. In … doublet leveled by lyne, Poynted and bottoned as in a brake.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXXIII. vi. 228. As if the whole space were wrought round by a Turners brake.
