Brake n.
 1. An instrument or machine to break or bruise the woody part of flax or hemp so that it may be separated from the fiber.
 2. An extended handle by means of which a number of men can unite in working a pump, as in a fire engine.
 3. A baker's kneading though.
 4. A sharp bit or snaffle.
    Pampered jades . . . which need nor break nor bit.   --Gascoigne.
 5. A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him; also, an inclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc.
    A horse . . . which Philip had bought . . . and because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of iron bars.   --J. Brende.
 6. That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn.
 7. Mil. An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista.
 8. Agric. A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after plowing; a drag.
 9. A piece of mechanism for retarding or stopping motion by friction, as of a carriage or railway car, by the pressure of rubbers against the wheels, or of clogs or ratchets against the track or roadway, or of a pivoted lever against a wheel or drum in a machine.
 10. Engin. An apparatus for testing the power of a steam engine, or other motor, by weighing the amount of friction that the motor will overcome; a friction brake.
 11. A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses.
 12. An ancient instrument of torture.
 Air brake. See Air brake, in the Vocabulary.
 Brake beam or  Brake bar, the beam that connects the brake blocks of opposite wheels.
 Brake block. (a) The part of a brake holding the brake shoe. (b) A brake shoe.
 Brake shoe or Brake rubber, the part of a brake against which the wheel rubs.
 Brake wheel, a wheel on the platform or top of a car by which brakes are operated.
 Continuous brake . See under Continuous.

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 Con·tin·u·ous a.
 1. Without break, cessation, or interruption; without intervening space or time; uninterrupted; unbroken; continual; unceasing; constant; continued; protracted; extended; as, a continuous line of railroad; a continuous current of electricity.
    he can hear its continuous murmur.   --Longfellow.
 2. Bot. Not deviating or varying from uninformity; not interrupted; not joined or articulated.
 Continuous brake Railroad, a brake which is attached to each car a train, and can be caused to operate in all the cars simultaneously from a point on any car or on the engine.
 Continuous impost. See Impost.
 Syn: -- Continuous, Continual.
 Usage: Continuous is the stronger word, and denotes that the continuity or union of parts is absolute and uninterrupted; as, a continuous sheet of ice; a continuous flow of water or of argument. So Daniel Webster speaks of “a continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.” Continual, in most cases, marks a close and unbroken succession of things, rather than absolute continuity. Thus we speak of continual showers, implying a repetition with occasional interruptions; we speak of a person as liable to continual calls, or as subject to continual applications for aid, etc. See Constant.

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