bracing

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of brace

comparative more bracing · superlative most bracing

1. Invigorating or stimulating.

   The tide was out, and we drew up amid the strong bracing smell of seaweed, with gulls screeching, wheeling around, and gliding on the wind.

   1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 8

   3 more examples

   Gaining the more open water, the bracing breeze waxed fresh; the little Moss tossed the quick foam from her bows, as a young colt his snortings.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 13”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

   The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   Stephen Fineman, a professor at the University of Bath’s School of Management, wrote a bracing paper in 2006 on overly cheery corporate practices.

   2014 July 31, Joe Pinsker, “Why Taco Bell Likes to Call Its Workers 'Champions'”, in The Atlantic

plural bracings

1. uncountableThat which braces.

   In general, we believe it is better to use too much bracing and then reduce the braces to the proper size rather than to start with too little. Cutting down braces gives the patient a feeling of accomplishment

   1969, Daniel Ruge, Spinal cord injuries, page 174

2. countableA brace.

   For stability against lateral forces, vertical bracings are provided.

   1997, Wind Effects on Structures, →ISBN, page 101

3. UScountableuncountableA form of the military attention stance.