Also 7 break, 9 Sc. brack (sense 3). [f. BRAKE v.3]
1. trans. To beat and crush flax, hemp, etc.
1398. [see below].
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 42. But howe it [flax] shulde be sowen … dryed, beaten, braked.
1611. Cotgr., Brayer du lin, to brake, or dresse flax.
1727. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Drying, Hemp or Flax … may be spread upon a Kiln … in order to dry it upon the same, and then to brake it.
Hence Braked ppl. a., Braking vbl. sb.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clx. (1495), 708. Wyth moche brakyng, heckelynge and robbyng.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr. (1652), 252. Instead of braking … there they altogether pill it.
1653. Walton, Angler, 107. The body is … bound with black braked-hemp.
2. To break (clods) with a harrow.
1800. J. Headrick, Com. Board Agric., II. 260. The land [should be] again cross-ploughed … and afterwards braked.
3. To knead (dough).
1832–53. Whistle-binkie, in Sc. Songs, Ser. III. 71. My bannock to brack, an’ my errand to rin.
