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Break

break (English)

Etymology

From - breken|lang=enm, from - brecan||to break|lang=ang, from - brekanan|to break|lang=en, from - bhrag'-||bhreg'-|to break|lang=en.

Cognates

Pronunciation

- /bɹeɪk/,

/breIk/

en-us-break.ogg

Rhymes: eɪk

- lang=en

Verb

breaks|breaking|broke|broken

To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.

If the vase falls to the floor, it might break.

She broke the vase.

# To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain.

#: His ribs broke under the weight of the rocks piled on his chest.

#: She broke his neck.

#: He slipped on the ice and broke his leg.

To divide (something, often money) into smaller units.

''Can you break a hundred-dollar bill for me?

The wholesaler broke the container loads into palettes and boxes for local retailers.

To cause (a person) to lose his or her spirit or will; to crush the spirits of; to ruin (a person) emotionally.

Her child's death broke Angela.

Interrogators have used many forms of torture to break prisoners of war.

To cause an animal to lose its will, to tame.

You have to break an elephant before you can use it as an animal of burden.

To cause (a habit) to no longer exist.

I've got to break this habit I have of biting my nails.

To ruin financially.

The recession broke some small businesses.

To do that which is forbidden by (a rule, promise, etc.).

When you go to Vancouver, promise me you won't break the law.

He broke his vows by cheating on his wife.

break one's word

of a fever

To pass the most dangerous part of the illness; to go down, temperaturewise.

Susan's fever broke at about 3 AM, and the doctor said the worst was over.

- _|slang To design or use a powerful (yet legal) strategy that unbalances the game in a player's favor.

Letting white have three extra queens would break chess.

To stop, or to cause to stop, functioning properly or altogether.

On the hottest day of the year the refrigerator broke.

Did you two break the trolley by racing with it?

# - in|_|programming To cause (some feature of a program or piece of software) to stop functioning properly; to cause a regression.

#: Adding 64-bit support broke backward compatibility with earlier versions.

To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar.

break a seal

specifically

To cause the shell of (an egg) to crack, so that the inside (yolk) is accessible.

specifically

To open (a safe) without using the correct key, combination or the like.

of a wave of water

To collapse into

- _|storm|_|or spell of|_|weather To end.

The forecast says the hot weather will break by midweek

To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily.

Let's break for lunch.

To interrupt (a fall) by inserting something so that the falling object not hit something else beneath.

He survived the jump out the window because the bushes below broke his fall.

ergative

To disclose or make_known an item of news, etc.

The newsman wanted to break a big story, something that would make him famous.

I don't know how to break this to you, but your cat is not coming back.

In the latest breaking news...

When news of their divorce broke, ...

of morning

To arrive.

Morning has broken.

To become audible suddenly.

1843

w:George_Lippard|George_Lippard, The Battle-Day of Germantown, reprinted in Washington and His Generals "1776", page 45

*: Like the crash of thunderbolts, the sound of musquetry broke over the lawn, .

To change a steady state abruptly.

His coughing broke the silence.

His turning on the lights broke the enchantment.

With the mood broken, what we had been doing seemed pretty silly.

informal

To suddenly become.

Things began breaking bad for him when his parents died.

The arrest was standard, when suddenly the suspect broke bad.

Of a voice, to alter in type: in men generally to go up, in women sometimes to go down; to crack.

His voice breaks when he gets emotional.

To surpass or do better than (a specific number), to do better than (a record), setting a new record.

He broke the men's 100-meter record.

I can't believe she broke 3 under par!

The policeman broke sixty on a residential street in his hurry to catch the thief.

- games:

tennis

To win a game as receiver.

#: He needs to break serve to win the match.

# - snooker|pool To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement.

#: Is it your or my turn to break?

transitive

To remove one of the two man|men on (a point).

- most often in the|_|passive tense To demote, to reduce the military rank of.

* 1953 February 9, “ Books: First Rulers of Asia”, in Time:

*: And he played no favorites: when his son-in-law sacked a city he had been told to spare, Genghis broke him to private.

* 1968, w:William_Manchester|William_Manchester, w:The_Arms_of_Krupp|The_Arms_of_Krupp, Back Bay (2003), ISBN 978-0-316-52940-2, page 215:

*: One morning after the budget had failed to balance Finanzminister von Scholz picked up Der Reichsanzeiger and found he had been broken to sergeant.

* 2006, w:Peter_Collier_(political_author)|Peter_Collier, Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty, Second Edition, Artisan Books, ISBN 978-1-57965-314-9, page 42:

*: Not long after this event, Clausen became involved in another disciplinary situation and was broken to private—the only one to win the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.

To end (a connection), to disconnect.

The referee ordered the boxers to break the clinch.

The referee broke the boxers' clinch.

I couldn't hear a thing he was saying, so I broke the connection and called him back.

To demulsify.

* - volume=22|author=Johan Sjöblom|page=400|year=2006|url= the droplets hit a solid wall the emulsion breaks instantly forming a bitumen on the wall and thus a layer up to 1 cm thick can be sprayed in one operation without requiring drying in between.

sports

To counter-attack

* {{quote-news

|year=2010 |date=December 28 |author=Kevin Darlin |title=West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn |work=BBC |url= |page= |passage=The Baggies almost hit back instantly when Graham Dorrans broke from midfield and pulled the trigger from 15 yards but Paul Robinson did superbly to tip the Scot's drive around the post. }}

Quotations

Usage notes

The sense relating to a spell of weather is most likely to be used after a period of persistent good or bad weather; it is rarely used to signify the end of short-lived conditions.

Synonyms

ergative: separate into two or more pieces

burst, bust, shatter, shear, smash, split

ergative: crack (bone)

crack, fracture

transitive: cause an animal to lose its will

subject, tame

transitive: do that which is forbidden by

contravene, go_against, violate

- of a computer or computer network

Antonyms

transitive: cause to end up in two or more pieces