Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as brake, 1.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A flax-brake is an implement which is almost impossible to describe.

    Home Life in Colonial Days Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • Then came work for strong men, to break it on the ponderous flax-brake, to separate the fibres and get out from the centre the hard woody "hexe" or "bun."

    Home Life in Colonial Days Alice Morse Earle 1881

  • This device, also known as a flax-brake, consisted of two sets of wooden teeth or blades hinged together.

    News from www.pantagraph.com 2009

  • Dimly seen in the corners of the room are baskets in which are packed hands of flax from the barn, where, under the flax-brake, the swingling-knife and coarse hackle, the shives and swingling tow have been removed by the men; to-morrow the more deft manipulations of the women will prepare these bunches of fibre for the little wheel, and granny will card the tow into bats, to be spun into tow yarn on the big wheel.

    The New England Magazine Volume 1, No. 3, March, 1886 Bay State Monthly Volume 4, No. 3, March, 1886 Various

  • "_George_ WASHINGTON PUGG; will you come and testify?" said the Squire with an emphasis on all the names, but rising and fairly hammering the last; when a greedy-eyed, brockle-faced, over-grown blade of seventeen opened up like a flax-brake, and loped forward over chairs and benches, responding in a houndish flat-and-treble voice, "_I_ reckon I'll

    Summerfield or, Life on a Farm Day Kellogg Lee

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