Also 7 bracke, 8–9 break(e. [cf. MLG. brake, connected with breken to BREAK, and originally meaning tree-stumps or broken branches, but also used (esp. in the phrase busk unde brake, bush and brake) in the exact sense of the Eng. word. See Schiller-Lübben. The historical relation of the Eng. to the LG. word is unknown.]
A clump of bushes, brushwood or briers; a thicket. Also attrib., as in brake-axe.
c. 1440. [see BRAKE1 2] Fernebrake, filicetum.
1563. Mirr. Mag., Jane Shore, xviii. What scratting bryers do growe upon such brakes.
1590. R. Payne, Descr. Irel. (1841), 6. A simple workeman with a Brake axe will cleaue a greate Oke.
1635. N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., II. xvi. 282. Their Houses were caues, their pallaces brackes or thickots.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 175. So thick entwin’d, As one continu’d brake, the undergrowth Of shrubs.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), IV. 1290. Rendered almost impassable … by breaks of fern, shrubs, and fallen trees.
1821. Shelley, Adonais, xviii. The amorous birds now pair in every brake.
1850. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xiv. 121. He saw again the cane brakes and cypresses of gliding plantations.
