braid

From Middle English braiden, breiden, 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-Germanic *bregdaną (“to flicker, flutter, jerk, tug, twitch, flinch, move, swing”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrēḱ-, *bʰrēǵ- (“to shine, shimmer”). Cognate with Scots brade, braid (“to move quickly or suddenly”), Saterland Frisian braidje (“to knit”), West Frisian breidzje, Dutch breien (“to knit”), Low 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)

• IPA^(key): /bɹeɪd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: brayed
• Rhymes: -eɪd

braid (third-person singular simple present braids, present participle braiding, simple past braided, past participle braided or (obsolete) browden)

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.
   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     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.
   • 1608, William Shakespeare, Pericles, Prince of Tyre, [Act 1, scene 1]:

     Great King, / Few love to hear the ſins they love to act, / ’Twould braid your ſelf too near for me to tell it […]

• umbraid
• upbraid

braid (plural braids)

1. (obsolete) A sudden movement; a jerk, a wrench. [11^th-17^thc.]
   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:

     , Bk.XII, ch.ii:

     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) […].

   • 1561, Thomas Sackville, Ferrex and Porrex‎, 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 16^thc.]
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 fancy; freak; caprice.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of R. Hyrde to this entry?)

• braid in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• braid in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• Braids on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

braid (comparative more braid, superlative most braid)

1. (obsolete) deceitful
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

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

• Baird, bidar, rabid

braid

1. Romanization of 𐌱𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌳

braid f

1. (archaic, dialectal) dative singular of brad

braid

1. Alternative form of breid