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# 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#m1)

2) He or she brakes means he or she uses the brakes to slow down or stop. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#m2)

### 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 →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#x1)
- The bus driver slammed on the brakes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#x2)
- Wet brakes take longer to stop the bike. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#x3)
- The car brakes squealed at the crossing. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#x4)
- My bike has two brakes on the handlebars. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#x5)
- Brakes use friction to slow the wheels down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#x6)
- She brakes gently when going downhill. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#x7)
- The train's brakes hissed as it stopped. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#x8)
- He held on savagely, and stuck out his feet to act as brakes on the dark slope of the hot, moist earth. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/#x9)

### 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.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/5-bikes-and-scooters/18/)
- [When a bus or car brakes suddenly, the people inside lurch forward.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/10-reasoning-about-the-moving-body/11/)
- [On a bike, a level, buckled helmet and brakes that work matter more than looking cool.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/42-swimming-and-cycling/5/)
- [Picture the ABC check on the drive, Air, Brakes, Chain, then Bikeability training before you ride on the road.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/42-swimming-and-cycling/6/)
- [Bike brakes use this too, squeezing rubber pads against the wheel until the speed turns into heat.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/physics/6-friction-the-grip/4/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «brakes» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/B/brakes/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.