Brake (carriage)

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A brake, also known as a break, was a type of horse-drawn carriage used in the nineteenth and early 20th centuries. It was a large or small, open-topped vehicle with four wheels and designed for country use . The form usually met, the shooting brake, was designed to carry the driver and a gamekeeper at the front, facing forward and up to six sportsmen on longditudinal benches, with their dogs, guns and game carried alongside in slat-sided racks.

In the early 19th century, a break was a large carriage-frame with no body, used for "breaking in" young horses. By the late 19th century the meaning had been extended to also mean a large waggonette.

Today the term is sometimes used to mean estate car or station wagon, especially in France.