brakes

«brakes» in Mova's school dictionary: the parts of a bike, car, train or other vehicle that… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (plural of brake: a brake, brakes); verb form (brakes, he/she/it form of brake: brake, brakes, braked, braking)

meaning for a pupil

1) Brakes are the parts of a bike, car, train or other vehicle that slow it down or stop it. tree →

2) He or she brakes means he or she uses the brakes to slow down or stop. tree →

sense in the lessons

In road safety lessons: check your bike's brakes before riding; squeeze both brakes gently and evenly; brakes work less well when wet, so leave more space. Cars need distance to stop, so never step into the road thinking a car can stop at once. In science, brakes work by friction, which turns movement energy into heat. Phrases: «put on the brakes», «slam on the brakes», «the brakes failed», «hand brake», «emergency brake».

examples

• Check your brakes before you ride your bike. tree →
• The bus driver slammed on the brakes. tree →
• Wet brakes take longer to stop the bike. tree →
• The car brakes squealed at the crossing. tree →
• My bike has two brakes on the handlebars. tree →
• Brakes use friction to slow the wheels down. tree →
• She brakes gently when going downhill. tree →
• The train's brakes hissed as it stopped. tree →
• He held on savagely, and stuck out his feet to act as brakes on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth. tree →

note

Homophone: «breaks» (from «break», to smash or a rest) sounds exactly the same; «brake» is only about slowing down. Past: «braked». Stopping distance = thinking distance + braking distance, and it grows a lot with speed.

In the corpora

• Brakes should be checked before a ride.
• When a bus or car brakes suddenly, the people inside lurch forward.
• On a bike, a level, buckled helmet and brakes that work matter more than looking cool.
• Picture the ABC check on the drive, Air, Brakes, Chain, then Bikeability training before you ride on the road.
• Bike brakes use this too, squeezing rubber pads against the wheel until the speed turns into heat.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «brakes» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.