The Collaborative International Dictionary
Brace \Brace\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Braced; p. pr. & vb. n. Bracing.]
To furnish with braces; to support; to prop; as, to brace a beam in a building.
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To draw tight; to tighten; to put in a state of tension; to strain; to strengthen; as, to brace the nerves.
And welcome war to brace her drums.
--Campbell. -
To bind or tie closely; to fasten tightly.
The women of China, by bracing and binding them from their infancy, have very little feet.
--Locke.Some who spurs had first braced on.
--Sir W. Scott. -
To place in a position for resisting pressure; to hold firmly; as, he braced himself against the crowd.
A sturdy lance in his right hand he braced.
--Fairfax. -
(Naut.) To move around by means of braces; as, to brace the yards.
To brace about (Naut.), to turn (a yard) round for the contrary tack.
To brace a yard (Naut.), to move it horizontally by means of a brace.
To brace in (Naut.), to turn (a yard) by hauling in the weather brace.
To brace one's self, to call up one's energies. ``He braced himself for an effort which he was little able to make.''
--J. D. Forbes.To brace to (Naut.), to turn (a yard) by checking or easing off the lee brace, and hauling in the weather one, to assist in tacking.
To brace up (Naut.), to bring (a yard) nearer the direction of the keel by hauling in the lee brace.
To brace up sharp (Naut.), to turn (a yard) as far forward as the rigging will permit.
Usage examples of "to brace up".
All the time he kept on treasuring with condign satisfaction each and every crumb of trektalk, covetous of his neighbour's word, and if ever, during a Munda conversazione commoted in the nation's interest, delicate tippits were thrown out to him touching his evil courses by some wellwishers, vainly pleading by scriptural arguments with the opprobrious papist about trying to brace up for the kidos of the thing, Scally wag, and be a men instead of a dem scrounger, dish it all, such as: Pray, what is the meaning, sousy, of that continental expression, if you ever came acrux it, we think it is a word transpiciously like canaille?
And then it all happened in a rush: a shout to Jackson to put the wheel over, an order to Aitken to brace up the yards and trim the sheets, and an instruction to Southwick to watch the following ships.
Bush, measuring with his eye the dwindling distance between the ship and the boom, was giving orders to brace up and work a trifle farther out to sea again, and the two sloops conformed to the Nonsuch's movements.