braid
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɹeɪd/
homophone: brayed
rhymes: -eɪd
Forms: form: braids
form: brayde
form: breyde
form: broid
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”).
Senses: examples: text: 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)[…].
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: 1561, Thomas Sackville, Ferrex and Porrex, act IV, scene ii, lines 1274–7:
glosses: A sudden movement; a jerk, a wrench.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2021, Becky S. Li, Howard I. Maibach, Ethnic Skin and Hair and Other Cultural Considerations, page 154:
glosses: A weave of three or more strands of fibers, ribbons, cords or hair often for decoration.
glosses: A stranded wire composed of a number of smaller wires twisted together.
glosses: A tubular sheath made of braided strands of metal placed around a central cable for shielding against electromagnetic interference.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1540, Juan Luis Vives, chapter 2, in Richard Hyrde, transl., Instruction of a Christian Woman:
glosses: A caprice or outburst of passion or anger.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2009, Mitchell A. Berger, Louis H. Kauffman, Renzo L. Ricca, Lectures on Topological Fluid Mechanics, page 1:
text: In order to characterise the structure and complexity of a braid different numbers or topological invariants can be calculated.
ref: 2012, A. T. Skjeltorp, Tamas Vicsek, Complexity from Microscopic to Macroscopic Scales, page 144:
topics: mathematics
sciences
topology
glosses: 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.
glosses: A wicker guard for protecting newly grafted trees.
glosses: A moment, stound.
glosses: A turn of work, job.
glosses: A trick; deception.
Derived terms: 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
Related terms: bridle