Also brake. [Derivation not quite certain: app. f. BREAK v., in the sense ‘to break a horse’; but it is said in Knight’s Amer. Mech. Dict. to be a general name for the fore-part or frame of a carriage, so that it may possibly be an application of BRAKE sb.5]
1. A large carriage-frame (having two or four wheels) with no body, used for breaking in young horses.
1831. Loudon, Cycl. Agric. (ed. 2), 1002. The training of coach-horses commences with … driving in a break or four-wheeled frame.
1865. Derby Mercury, 1 March. A horse-breaker’s drag, or break, with two horses harnessed to it.
2. A large wagonette.
1874. Lady Barker, N. Zealand, iv. 23. In their comfortable and large break with four horses.
1882. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. III. 451. A brake and four conveying a large party.
1884. P’cess Alice, Mem., 72. Louis drove me and his two brothers in a break.
1885. Liverpool Daily Post, 23 April, 5/2. The large brakes which convey pleasure-seekers … are running, especially on Sundays, with crowded loads.
