Found 1 items, similar to Continuous brake.
English → English (gcide) Definition: Continuous brake Continuous \Con*tin"u*ous\, a. [L. continuus, fr. continere to hold together. See Continent.] 1. Without break, cessation, or interruption; without intervening space or time; uninterrupted; unbroken; continual; unceasing; constant; continued; protracted; extended; as, a continuous line of railroad; a continuous current of electricity. [1913 Webster] he can hear its continuous murmur. --Longfellow. [1913 Webster] 2. (Bot.) Not deviating or varying from uninformity; not interrupted; not joined or articulated. [1913 Webster] Continuous brake (Railroad), a brake which is attached to each car a train, and can be caused to operate in all the cars simultaneously from a point on any car or on the engine. Continuous impost. See Impost. Syn: Continuous, Continual. Usage: Continuous is the stronger word, and denotes that the continuity or union of parts is absolute and uninterrupted; as, a continuous sheet of ice; a continuous flow of water or of argument. So Daniel Webster speaks of “a continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England.” Continual, in most cases, marks a close and unbroken succession of things, rather than absolute continuity. Thus we speak of continual showers, implying a repetition with occasional interruptions; we speak of a person as liable to continual calls, or as subject to continual applications for aid, etc. See Constant. [1913 Webster] Brake \Brake\ (br[=a]k), n. [OE. brake; cf. LG. brake an instrument for breaking flax, G. breche, fr. the root of E. break. See Break, v. t., and cf. Breach.] 1. An instrument or machine to break or bruise the woody part of flax or hemp so that it may be separated from the fiber. [1913 Webster] 2. An extended handle by means of which a number of men can unite in working a pump, as in a fire engine. [1913 Webster] 3. A baker's kneading though. --Johnson. [1913 Webster] 4. A sharp bit or snaffle. [1913 Webster] Pampered jades . . . which need nor break nor bit. --Gascoigne. [1913 Webster] 5. A frame for confining a refractory horse while the smith is shoeing him; also, an inclosure to restrain cattle, horses, etc. [1913 Webster] A horse . . . which Philip had bought . . . and because of his fierceness kept him within a brake of iron bars. --J. Brende. [1913 Webster] 6. That part of a carriage, as of a movable battery, or engine, which enables it to turn. [1913 Webster] 7. (Mil.) An ancient engine of war analogous to the crossbow and ballista. [1913 Webster] 8. (Agric.) A large, heavy harrow for breaking clods after plowing; a drag. [1913 Webster] 9. A piece of mechanism for retarding or stopping motion by friction, as of a carriage or railway car, by the pressure of rubbers against the wheels, or of clogs or ratchets against the track or roadway, or of a pivoted lever against a wheel or drum in a machine. [1913 Webster] 10. (Engin.) An apparatus for testing the power of a steam engine, or other motor, by weighing the amount of friction that the motor will overcome; a friction brake. [1913 Webster] 11. A cart or carriage without a body, used in breaking in horses. [1913 Webster] 12. An ancient instrument of torture. --Holinshed. [1913 Webster] Air brake. See Air brake, in the Vocabulary. Brake beam or Brake bar, the beam that connects the brake blocks of opposite wheels. Brake block. (a) The part of a brake holding the brake shoe. (b) A brake shoe. Brake shoe or Brake rubber, the part of a brake against which the wheel rubs. Brake wheel, a wheel on the platform or top of a car by which brakes are operated. Continuous brake . See under Continuous. [1913 Webster]