braid

English

A braid

Etymology 1

From Middle English braiden, breiden, bræiden, from Old English breġdan (“to move quickly, pull, shake, swing, throw (wrestling), draw (sword), drag; bend, weave, braid, knit, join together; change color, vary, be transformed; bind, knot; move, be pulled; flash”), from Proto-Germanic *bregdaną (“to flicker, flutter, jerk, tug, twitch, flinch, move, swing”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēḱ-, *bʰrēǵ- (“to shine, shimmer”). Cognate with Scots brade, braid (“to move quickly or suddenly”), Saterland Frisian braidje (“to knit”), West Frisian breidzje, Dutch breien (“to knit”), Low German breiden, Bavarian bretten (“to move quickly, twitch”), Icelandic bregða (“to move quickly, jerk”).

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bɹeɪd/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Homophone: brayed
  • Rhymes: -eɪd

Verb

braid (third-person singular simple present braids, present participle braiding, simple past braided, past participle braided or (obsolete) browden)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To make a sudden movement with, to jerk.
  2. (archaic, intransitive) To start into motion.
  3. (transitive) To weave together, intertwine (strands of fibers, ribbons, etc.); to arrange (hair) in braids.
    • Milton
      Braid your locks with rosy twine.
  4. To mix, or make uniformly soft, by beating, rubbing, or straining, as in preparing food.
  5. (obsolete) To reproach; to upbraid.
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

braid (plural braids)

  1. (obsolete) A sudden movement; a jerk, a wrench. [11th-17thc.]
    • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London: William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur, London: Published by David Nutt, in the Strand, 1889, OCLC 890162034:
      , Bk.XII, ch.ii:
      And than in a brayde Sir Launcelot brake hys chaynes of hys legges and of hys armys (and in the brakynge he hurte hys hondys sore) […].
    • 1561, Thomas Sackville, Ferrex and Porrex‎, Act IV, scene ii, lines 1274–7:
      He fixt vpon my face, which to my death / Will neuer part fro me, when with a braide / A deepe fet sigh he gaue, and therewithall / Clasping his handes, to heauen he cast his sight.
  2. A weave of three or more strands of fibers, ribbons, cords or hair often for decoration. [from 16thc.]
  3. A fancy; freak; caprice.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of R. Hyrde to this entry?)
Translations

Further reading

  • braid in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • braid in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
  • Braids on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Etymology 2

Adjective

braid (comparative more braid, superlative most braid)

  1. (obsolete) deceitful
    • Shakespeare
      Since Frenchmen are so braid, / Marry that will, I live and die a maid.

Anagrams

Gothic

Romanization

braid

  1. Romanization of 𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌳

Irish

Noun

braid f

  1. (archaic, dialectal) dative singular of brad

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
braid bhraid mbraid
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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