braid

• IPA^(key): /bɹeɪd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: brayed
• Rhymes: -eɪd

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”).

• brayde, breyde, broid (obsolete)

braid (third-person singular simple present braids, present participle braiding, simple past and past participle braided)

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.
   • 1671, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC:

     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.
   • c. 1607–1608, William Shakeſpeare, The Late, And much admired Play, Called Pericles, Prince of Tyre. […], London: Imprinted at London for Henry Goſſon,  […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

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

braid (countable and uncountable, plural braids)

1. (obsolete, countable) A sudden movement; a jerk, a wrench. [11th–17th c.]
   • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum ii”, in [Le Morte Darthur], book XII, [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC:

     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) […].

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 1561, Thomas Sackville, Ferrex and Porrex‎^[1], 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 16th c.]
   • 2021, Becky S. Li, Howard I. Maibach, Ethnic Skin and Hair and Other Cultural Considerations, page 154:

     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. A stranded wire composed of a number of smaller wires twisted together.
4. A tubular sheath made of braided strands of metal placed around a central cable for shielding against electromagnetic interference.
5. (obsolete) A caprice or outburst of passion or anger.
   • 1540, Juan Luis Vives, chapter 2, in Richard Hyrde, transl., Instruction of a Christian Woman:

     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. (mathematics, topology) 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.
   • 2009, Mitchell A. Berger, Louis H. Kauffman, Renzo L. Ricca, Lectures on Topological Fluid Mechanics, page 1:

     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.

   • 2012, A. T. Skjeltorp, Tamas Vicsek, Complexity from Microscopic to Macroscopic Scales, page 144:

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

7. (dialectal) A wicker guard for protecting newly grafted trees.
8. (obsolete) A moment, stound.
9. (obsolete) A turn of work, job.
10. (obsolete) A trick; deception.

• bridle

braid (comparative more braid, superlative most braid)

1. (obsolete) Crafty, deceitful.
   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

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

• “braid”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “braid”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• Category:Braids on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

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”).

• brade, brad, bread, bred, breid, breyd

braid (plural braids)

1. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) A shelf or board for holding objects.
2. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) A board to press curd for cheese.
3. (UK dialectal, Northern England, Scotland, Ireland) A flat board attached to a beam, used for weighing.

• Baird, Bardi, bidar, rabid

braid

1. Romanization of 𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌳

braid f

1. (archaic, dialectal) dative singular of brad

braid

1. Alternative form of breid