braid

Crafty, deceitful.

Adjective

  1. Crafty, deceitful.
    • Since Frenchmen are so braid, / Marry that will, I live and die a maid. - c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […]...

Origin

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”).

Forms

more braid most braid brayde breyde broid

Noun countable, obsolete

  1. A 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)[…]. - 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “Capitulum ii”, in [Le Morte Darthur],...
    • 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. - 1561, Thomas Sackville, Ferrex and...
  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. - 2021,...
  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. A 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...
  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. - 2009, Mitchell A. Berger, Louis H. Kauffman, Renzo L....
    • In order to characterise the structure and complexity of a braid different numbers or topological invariants can be calculated. - 2012, A. T. Skjeltorp, Tamas Vicsek, Complexity from Microscopic to Macroscopic Scales,...
  7. A wicker guard for protecting newly grafted trees.
  8. A moment, stound.
  9. A turn of work, job.
  10. A trick; deception.

Forms

braids brayde breyde broid

Related

bridle

Derived

box braids braid bar braid group braidlike braid statistics braidwork Brunnian braid dookie braid dooky braid Dutch braid French braid Madonna braid microbraid Russia braid Russian braid

Noun Ireland, Northern England

  1. A shelf or board for holding objects.
  2. A board to press curd for cheese.
  3. A flat board attached to a beam, used for weighing.

Origin

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

braids brade brad bread bred breid breyd

Verb

  1. To make a sudden movement with, to jerk.
  2. To start into motion.
  3. To weave together, intertwine (strands of fibers, ribbons, etc.); to arrange (hair) in braids.
    • Braid your locks with rosy twine. - 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:

    Synonyms: interlace interthread twine betwine braid entwist entwine intertwine intertwist interweave lace lock raddle ruddle twist

  4. To mix, or make uniformly soft, by beating, rubbing, or straining, as in preparing food.
  5. To 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 […] - c. 1607–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, [George Wilkins?], The Late, and Much Admired...

Forms

braids braiding braided brayde breyde broid

Derived

abraid braidable braider braille embraid French-braid rebraid umbraid unbraid upbraid