A brake for an elevator hoist in which a car gets stopped certainly even if something goes awry in a spring to generate braking force or any presser member such as a brake lining and the like degrades in coefficient of friction. The brake, besides the spring and a first electrically-energized magnet to force the presser member to isolate away from a braked member against an urging force of the spring, has a second electrically-energized magnet actuated to urge the presser member against the braked member. Thus, energization of the second magnet makes up for insufficient braking force in case where the desired braking force can't be achieved with only the energization of the spring.