Bracket

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ækɪt

Origin

From earlier bragget, probably from Middle French braguette, from Old French braguette ("the opening in the fore part of a pair of breeches"), from Old Provencal braga, from Latin brāca ("pants"), from Transalpine Gaulish *brāca ("pants"), perhaps from or related to similar forms in : compare Old English braccas ("pants"), Old English brōc ("breeches"), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrāg-, from *bʰreg- ("to break, crack, split, divide"). More at breech, britches.

Full definition of bracket

Noun

1. (item attached to a wall to hold up a shelf)A fixture attached to a wall to hold up a shelf.
2. (engineering) Any intermediate object that connects a smaller part to a larger part, the smaller part typically projecting sideways from the larger part.
3. (nautical) A short crooked timber, resembling a knee, used as a support.
4. (military) The cheek or side of an ordnance carriage.
5. Any of the characters "(", ")", """, "{", "}", and, in the area of computer languages, "<" and ">".
6. "(" and ")" specifically, the other forms above requiring adjectives for disambiguation.
7. (technical) "and "" specifically - opposed to the other forms of which have their own technical names.
8. (sports) Printed diagram of games in a tournament.
9. (sports) Prediction of the outcome of games in a tournament, used for betting purposes.
10. One of several ranges of numbers.tax bracket, age bracket
11. (military) In artillery, the endangered region between two shell impacts (one long and one short). The next shell fired is likely to hit accurately.

Synonyms

• ("(" and ")") parentheses, parens

Derived terms

Hyponyms

Verb

1. To bound on both sides, to surround as enclosing with brackets.I tried to hit the bullseye by first bracketing it with two shots and then splitting the difference with my third, but I missed.
2. To place in the same category.Because the didn't have enough young boys for two full teams, they bracketed the seven-year olds with the eight-year olds.
3. To mark distinctly for special treatment.
• 1992, Tom Burns, Erving Goffman, Next, since so much social activity is defined by being bracketed out of the world of ongoing events, it becomes possible that outside such bracketed episodes, ... people are — especially beforehand, but also afterwards — to some extent "out of role", and so off their guard.
4. To set aside, discount, ignore.
• 2009, Michael Erard, “Holy Grammar, Inc.”, in Search Magazine, July–August 2009:SIL got access to academic legitimacy; linguists bracketed the evangelical engine that drives SIL because they got access to data and tools.
5. (photography) To take multiple images of the same subject, using a range of exposure settings, in order to help ensure that a satisfactory image is obtained.
6. (philosophy, phenomenology) In the philosophical system of Edmund Husserl and his followers, to set aside metaphysical theories and existential questions concerning what is real in order to focus philosophical attention simply on the actual content of experience.