brad
UK /bɹad/ · US /bɹæd/ noun, verb, proper noun
Also a form of braid
Forms brads bradding bradded
- noun A thin, small nail, with a slight projection at the top on one side instead of a head, or occasionally with a small domed head, similar to that of an escutcheon pin.
- noun (US, elementary school usage) A paper fastener, a fastening device formed of thin, soft metal, such as shim brass, with a round head and a flat, split shank, which is spread after insertion in a hole in a stack of pages, in much the same way as a cotter pin or a split rivet.
- verb (transitive) To attach using a brad.
- verb (transitive) To upset the end of a rod inserted in a hole so as to prevent it from being pulled out, as when riveting.
- noun A binary radian.
- proper noun A diminutive of the male given names Bradley, Bradly, and Bradford, also used as a formal given name.
- proper noun A city in Hunedoara County, Romania.
- noun (incel slang, looksmaxxing) Synonym of Chadlite (“a man of a slightly lower ranking on a scale of physical attractiveness than Chad”)
Synonyms
Etymology
Late Middle English brad, variant of brod(d), from Old Norse broddr (“spike, shaft”), from Proto-Germanic *bruzdaz (compare Old English brord, Old High German brort), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrusdʰos (compare Welsh brath (“sting, prick”), Albanian bredh (“fir-tree”), Lithuanian bruzdùklis (“bridle”), Czech brzda (“brake”). Doublet of prod.
Clipping.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A thin nail, usually small, with a slight projection at the top on one side instead of a head; also, a small wire nail, with a flat circular head; sometimes, a small, tapering, square-bodied finishing nail, with a countersunk head.
Etymology [Cf.OE. brod, Dan. braad prick, sting, brodde ice spur, frost nail, Sw. brodd frost nail, Icel. broddr any pointed piece of iron or stell; akin to AS. brord point, spire of grass, and perh. to E. bristle. See Bristle, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “brad”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details