braid
/bɹeɪd/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.24 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To weave together, intertwine (strands of fibers, ribbons, etc.); to arrange (hair) in braids.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Braid your locks with rosy twine."
- "Great King, / Few loue to heare the ſinnes they loue to act, / T'would brayde your ſelfe too neare for me to tell it […]"
- "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)[…]."
- "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."
- "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."
- "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."
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”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
Inflected Forms
braids (present, singular)
braiding (participle, present)
braided (participle, past)
braided (past)
brayde (alternative, obsolete)
breyde (alternative, obsolete)
broid (alternative, obsolete)
braids (plural)
more braid (comparative)
most braid (superlative)
brade (alternative)
brad (alternative)