brace

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A device that holds or fastens two or more parts together or in place; a clamp.
• noun A device, such as a supporting beam in a building or a connecting wire or rope, that steadies or holds something else erect.
• noun Chiefly British Suspenders.
• noun An orthopedic appliance used to support, align, or hold a bodily part in the correct position.
• noun A dental appliance constructed of bands and wires that is fixed to the teeth to correct irregular alignment.
• noun An extremely stiff, erect posture.
• noun A cause or source of renewed physical or spiritual vigor.
• noun A protective pad strapped to the bow arm of an archer.
• noun Nautical A rope by which a yard is swung and secured on a square-rigged ship.
• noun A cranklike handle with an adjustable aperture at one end for securing and turning a bit.
• noun Music A leather loop that slides to change the tension on the cord of a drum.
• noun A vertical line, usually accompanied by the symbol {, connecting two or more staffs.
• noun A set of staffs connected in this way.
• noun A symbol, { or }, enclosing two or more lines of text or listed items to show that they are considered as a unit.
• noun Mathematics Either of a pair of symbols, { }, used to indicate aggregation or to clarify the grouping of quantities when parentheses and square brackets have already been used.
• noun A pair of like things.
• intransitive verb To furnish with a brace.
• intransitive verb To support or hold steady with or as if with a brace; reinforce.
• intransitive verb To prepare or position so as to be ready for impact or danger.
• intransitive verb To confront with questions or requests.
• intransitive verb To increase the tension of.
• intransitive verb To invigorate; stimulate.
• intransitive verb Nautical To turn (the yards of a ship) by the braces.
• intransitive verb To get ready; make preparations.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To clasp or grasp; embrace; hold firmly.
• To bind or tie closely; fit or secure by ties; bandage; strap.
• To string or bend (a bow) by putting the eye of the string in the upper nock preparatory to shooting.
• To make tense; strain up; increase the tension, tone, or vigor of; strengthen: used both literally and figuratively: as, to brace the nerves.
• To fix in the position of a brace; hold firmly in place: used reflexively: as, to brace one's self against a post or a crowd.
• To furnish with, or support or prop by, braces: as, to brace a building or a falling wall.
• Nautical, to swing or turn around (the yards of a ship) by means of the braces.
• In writing and printing, to unite or connect by a brace, as two or more lines, staves of music, etc.
• To increase the tension, tone, or vigor of: often used intransitively with the object understood.
• noun A prop or support; specifically, in architecture, a piece of timber placed near and across the angles in the frame of a building in order to strengthen it. When used to support a rafter it is called a strut.
• noun That which holds two or more things firmly together; a cincture or bandage.
• noun A pair; a couple: as, a brace of ducks: used of persons only with a shade of contempt or colloquially.
• noun A thick strap by which a carriage-body is suspended from C-springs.
• noun In printing, a vertical double-curved line, used to connect two or more lines: thus, , or two or more staves in music.
• noun A leather band placed about the cords of a drum and sliding upon them: used to raise or lower the tone by increasing or lessening the tension of the cords: as, “the braces of the war drum,”
• noun plural Straps passing over the shoulders to sustain the trousers; suspenders.
• noun A device for supporting a weak back, curved shoulders, etc.
• noun Nautical: One of the ropes fastened to the yards of a ship, one to each yard-arm, which, reaching to the deck, enable the yards to be swung about horizontally. They also help the yards to support the strain caused by the wind on the sails. plural Straps of brass or metal castings fastened on the stern-post, to receive the pintles by which the rudder is hung.
• noun A defense or protection for the arm; specifically, one used in archery. Same as bracer, 2.
• noun State of defense.
• noun The state of being braced; tension; tightness.
• noun An arm (of the sea).
• noun A curved instrument of iron or wood for holding and turning boring-tools, etc.; a bit-stock.
• noun A wooden rod with spiked ends, used to support scenery in a theater.