Break or Brake

[davidj]

I know this sounds picky, but the unintentional misuse of these words has been having an accumulative effect on me. It appears that people on the board have been politely ignoring the occasional misuse, and that’s fine. But for those who really don’t know the distinction, and would like to, here it is:

Brake
As a noun, brake most commonly refers to a device for slowing down or stopping the movement of a vehicle or machine. (This includes devices fastened to the muzzles of rifles). The verb brake means to slow down or stop with a brake.

Break
As a noun, break has many meanings, including a fracture, an interruption, a pause, a sudden move, an escape, and an opportunity.

The irregular verb break also has many meanings. The most common ones include to split or cut open, to make unusable, and to interrupt.

Lastly, there is the compound word, break-in, which refers to the initial period of mechanical operation during which working parts begin to function properly.

Now that that is off my chest, I think I’ll hit the brakes on this thread and go take a break.

You obviously weren't educated in Albuquerque.