CLIFF-BRAKE

Pronunciation (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cliff-brake mean? 

• CLIFF-BRAKE (noun)
  The noun CLIFF-BRAKE has 1 sense:

1. any of several small lithophytic ferns of tropical and warm temperate regions

  Familiarity information: CLIFF-BRAKE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CLIFF-BRAKE (noun)

Meaning:

Any of several small lithophytic ferns of tropical and warm temperate regions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting plants

Synonyms:

cliff brake; cliff-brake; rock brake

Hypernyms ("cliff-brake" is a kind of...):

fern (any of numerous flowerless and seedless vascular plants having true roots from a rhizome and fronds that uncurl upward; reproduce by spores)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "cliff-brake"):

coffee fern; Pellaea andromedifolia (evergreen fern of California and Baja California)

Pellaea atropurpurea; purple rock brake (very short shallowly creeping North American fern usually growing on cliffs or walls and having dark glossy leaf axes)

bird's-foot fern; Pellaea mucronata; Pellaea ornithopus (cliff brake of California and Baja California having purple-brown leafstalks)

Holonyms ("cliff-brake" is a member of...):

genus Pellaea; Pellaea (genus of chiefly small rock-loving ferns; in some classification systems it is placed in the family Polypodiaceae or Adiantaceae)