bracket

plural brackets

1. A fixture attached to a wall to hold up a shelf.
2. engineeringAny intermediate object that connects a smaller part to a larger part, the smaller part typically projecting sideways from the larger part.

   To determine if your frame has this bottom bracket type, look for a notched and possibly knurled lockring on the left side (the side without the chainrings).

   2005, Todd Downs, The Bicycling Guide to Complete Bicycle Maintenance & Repair for Road and Mountain bikes, →ISBN

   1 more example

   Not only does the attachment on the tooth surface (called a bracket) allow the tooth to be moved vertically or tilted, but also a force couple can be generated by the interaction between the bracket and an archwire running through the bracket.

   2013, Laura Mitchell, An Introduction to Orthodontics, →ISBN, page 220

3. nauticalA short crooked timber, resembling a knee, used as a support.
4. governmentThe cheek or side of an ordnance carriage, supporting the trunnions.
5. Any of the characters “(”, “)”, “[”, “]”, “{”, “}”, “⟨”, “⟩”, “<”, “>”, or the like, used in pairs to enclose parenthetic remarks, sections of mathematical expressions, etc.
   1. UK“(” and “)” specifically, the other forms above requiring adjectives for disambiguation.
   2. US“[” and “]” specifically, as opposed to the other forms, which have their own technical names.
6. hobbiesA diagram of games in a tournament.
7. hobbiesA prediction of the outcome of games in a tournament, used for betting purposes.
8. One of several ranges of numbers.

   tax bracket, age bracket

   1 more example

   taxpayers in the $50,000 to $70,000 bracket

9. algebraA pair of values that represent the smallest and largest elements of a range.
10. governmentTypically of stationary weapons, the zone enclosed by one long and one short shot impact expected to be hit very accurately.
11. mediaThe small curved or angular corner formed by a serif and a stroke in a letter.
12. obsoleteland surveyinga mark cut into a stone by land surveyors to secure a bench.

    Synonyms: benchmark

present singular third person brackets · participle present bracketing · participle past bracketed · past bracketed

1. To support by means of mechanical brackets.
2. To enclose in typographical brackets.
3. To bound on both sides, to surround, as enclosing with brackets.
4. To place in the same category.

   Because they didn’t have enough young boys for two full teams, they bracketed the seven-year-olds with the eight-year-olds.

   1 more example

   Some villain who knows nothing about it comes into it for money and so the labours of honest mediums get discounted. The public very naturally brackets them all together.

   1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Which Introduces Some Very Physical Phenomena”, in The Land of Mist, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, published 1926, →OCLC, page 158

5. To mark distinctly for special treatment.

   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.

   1992, Tom Burns, Erving Goffman, page 292

6. To set aside, discount, ignore.

   SIL got access to academic legitimacy; linguists bracketed the evangelical engine that drives SIL because they got access to data and tools.

   2009, Michael Erard, “Holy Grammar, Inc.”, in Search Magazine, July–August 2009

7. governmentTo gauge the range of a target by firing equally short and long of it and ranging the weapon between the two to achieve a very accurate hit.
8. artsTo take multiple images of the same subject, using a range of exposure settings, in order to help ensure that a satisfactory image is obtained.
9. human sciencesIn 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.

1. alternativeuncountableAlternative form of bragget (“drink made with ale and honey”).