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braid

verbnounadjectivenounattested in dialogue

  • //bɹeɪd//

To weave together, intertwine (strands of fibers, ribbons, etc.); to arrange (hair) in braids.

verb

  1. 1

    obsoleteTo make a sudden movement with, to jerk.

  2. 2

    archaicTo start into motion.

  3. 3

    To weave together, intertwine (strands of fibers, ribbons, etc.); to arrange (hair) in braids.

    Braid your locks with rosy twine.

  4. 4

    To mix, or make uniformly soft, by beating, rubbing, or straining, as in preparing food.

  5. 5

    obsoleteTo reproach; to upbraid.

    Great King, / Few loue to heare the ſinnes they loue to act, / T'would brayde your ſelfe too neare for me to tell it […]

Etymology

From Middle English braiden, breided, 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-West Germanic *bregdan, 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 Scots brade, Scots braid (“to move quickly or suddenly”), Saterland Frisian braidje (“to knit”), West Frisian breidzje, Dutch breien (“to knit”), Low German breiden, German breiden, Bavarian bretten (“to move quickly, twitch”), Icelandic bregða (“to move quickly, jerk”), Faroese bregða (“to move quickly, react swiftly; to draw (sword)”) and Faroese bregda (“to plaid, braid, twist, twine”).

noun

  1. 1

    obsoleteA sudden movement; a jerk, a wrench.

    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)[…].

    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. 2

    A weave of three or more strands of fibers, ribbons, cords or hair often for decoration.

    The physician should evaluate for a history of tight ponytails, buns, chignons, braids, twists, weaves, cornrows, dreadlocks, sisterlocks, and hair wefts in addition to the usage of religious hair coverings.

  3. 3

    A stranded wire composed of a number of smaller wires twisted together.

  4. 4

    A tubular sheath made of braided strands of metal placed around a central cable for shielding against electromagnetic interference.

  5. 5

    obsoleteA caprice or outburst of passion or anger.

    Let the maide learne none uncleanly words, or wanton, or uncomely gesture and moving of the body, no not so much as when she is yet ignorant what shee doth, and innocent; for shee shall doe the same, when shee is growne bigger and of more discretion, […] And oftentimes such braides come uppon them against their will.

  6. 6

    Given two sets of n points on corresponding positions on two parallel lines, a braid is a unique set of crossings (over or under) between n strands that connect each point on one line to a point on the other line such that all points represent the terminus of one and only one strand and the traversal of any strand from a starting point to an ending point never moves further away from the from the ending point.

    We introduce braids via their historical roots and uses, make connections with knot theory and present the mathematical theory of braids through the braid group.

    In order to characterise the structure and complexity of a braid different numbers or topological invariants can be calculated.

  7. 7

    A wicker guard for protecting newly grafted trees.

  8. 8

    obsoleteA moment, stound.

  9. 9

    obsoleteA turn of work, job.

  10. 10

    obsoleteA trick; deception.

adjective

  1. 1

    obsoleteCrafty, deceitful.

    Since Frenchmen are so braid, / Marry that will, I live and die a maid.

noun

  1. 1

    A shelf or board for holding objects.

  2. 2

    A board to press curd for cheese.

  3. 3

    A flat board attached to a beam, used for weighing.

Etymology

From Middle English brede, bræd, bred, from Old English bred (“board, plank, tablet, table”), from Proto-West Germanic *bred, from Proto-Germanic *bredą (“board, plank”), e-grade byform of *burdą (“board, plank”). Cognate with Scots bred, braid, brad (“board, plank, wooden tablet”), Saterland Frisian Brääd (“board, plank”), West Frisian bret (“board, plank”), Dutch bred, berd (“plank, table”), German Low German Bredd (“board, plank”), German Brett (“board, plank”), Danish bræt (“board, plank”)..

Forms

plural
braids
comparative
more braid
superlative
most braid
past tense
braided
past participle
braided
present participle
braiding
third person singular
braids
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).