noun

• (obsolete) Armor for the arm; vambrace.
• (obsolete) A measurement of length, originally representing a person's outstretched arms.
• (typography) A curved, pointed line, also known as "curly bracket": { or } connecting two or more words or lines, which are to be considered together, such as in {role, roll}; in music, used to connect staves.
• (plural brace) A pair, a couple; originally used of dogs, and later of animals generally (e.g., a brace of conies) and then other things, but rarely human persons. (In British use (as plural), this is a particularly common reference to game birds.)
  "But you, my brace of Lords, were I ſo minded / I heere could plucke his Highneſſe frowne vpon you / And iuſtifie you Traitors: […]"

verb

• (transitive, intransitive) To prepare for something bad, such as an impact or blow.
  "All hands, brace for impact!"
• (nautical) To swing round the yards of a square rigged ship, using braces, to present a more efficient sail surface to the direction of the wind.
  "to brace the yards"