Braise, brays, and braze are commonly confused words that are pronounced in the same way but are spelled differently and have different meanings, which makes them homophones. We will examine the different meanings of the homophonic words braise, brays and braze, the word origins of the terms, and some examples of their English usage in sentences.
Braise is a cooking term that means to brown something and then stew it slowly in liquid until it is cooked. The word braise is a transitive verb, which is a verb that takes an object. Sometimes, braise is used as a noun to mean a dish that has been cooked by braising. Related words are braises, braised, braising. The word braise is derived from the French word, braise, which means to stew over live coals.
Brays is the plural noun or third person singular form of the word bray, which is the harsh sound that a donkey or mule makes or the act of producing the sound. Bray is also used to describe a particularly loud and obnoxious laugh emitted by a human. Bray is an intransitive verb, which is a verb that does not take an object; related words are bray, brayed, braying. The word brays is derived from the old French word, braire, meaning to cry out.
Braze means to solder something with brass, which is an alloy of copper and zinc. Braze is a transitive verb; related words are brazes, brazed, brazing. The word braze is derived from the French word, braser, which means to solder.
Examples
That’s a savings of nearly $300 on a Dutch oven that will sear, sauté, fry, roast, braise and cook meats, veggies, stews, breads and more to perfection… and truly, what more could a home chef ask for? (USA Today)
The birds are known, as well, as “black-footed penguins” and “jackass penguins,” the latter due to sounds they make similar to a donkey’s brays. (Newsweek)
Even if the repair procedures for the auto aftermarket do differ from the factory joining — you probably don’t have a laser brazing robot on hand — the discussion during the May 19 Great Designs in Steel still might offer repairers insight into trends related to both. (Repairer Driven News)