Break Definition

English

Etymology

From Middle English breken, from Old English brecan (“to break”), from Proto-Germanic *brekanan (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhrag'-, *bhreg'- (“to break”).

Germanic cognates include Scots brek (“to break”), West Frisian brekke (“to break”), Dutch breken (“to break”), French broyer (“to crush, grind”), German brechen (“to break”), Gothic 𐌱𐍂𐌹𐌺𐌰𐌽 (brikan, “to break, destroy”), Norwegian brek (“desire, yearning”).

Also cognate with Latin frangō (“break, break up, shatter”, verb), from whence English fracture and other terms – fragile, frail, fraction, and fragment.

Pronunciation

• enPR: brāk, IPA: /bɹeɪk/, SAMPA: /breIk/

• Audio (US)
  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪk
• Homophones: brake

Verb

break (third-person singular simple present breaks, present participle breaking, simple past broke, past participle broken)

1. (intransitive) To end up in two or more pieces that cannot easily be reassembled.

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

2. (transitive) To cause to end up in two or more pieces that cannot easily be reassembled.

   She broke the vase.

3. (transitive, US) 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.

4. (intransitive) Of a bone, to crack or fracture due to a physical strain, such as a collision.

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

5. (transitive) To cause, accidentally or intentionally, (a bone) to crack under physical strain.

   She broke his neck.

   He slipped on the ice and broke his leg.

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

   Her child's death broke her.

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

7. 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.

8. To cause (a habit) to no longer exist.

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

9. To ruin financially.

   The recession broke some small businesses.

10. (transitive) To do that which is forbidden by (a rule or rules).

    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

11. (transitive, gaming 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.

12. (intransitive) To stop functioning properly or altogether.

    On the hottest day of the year the refrigerator broke.

13. (transitive) To cause to stop functioning properly or altogether.

    Did you two break the trolley by racing with it?

    1. (specifically, 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.

14. (transitive) To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar.

    break a seal

    1. (specifically) To cause the shell of (an egg) to crack, so that the inside (yolk) is accessible.
    2. (specifically) To open (a safe) without using the correct key, combination, or the like.
15. (intransitive, of a wave of water) To collapse into surf, after arriving in shallow water. A wave breaking.
16. (intransitive, of a storm or spell of weather) to end

    The forecast says the hot weather will break by midweek

17. (intransitive) To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily.

    Let's break for lunch.

18. (transitive) 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.

19. (transitive, 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.

20. (intransitive, of morning) To arrive.

    Morning has broken.

21. (intransitive, of a sound) To become audible suddenly.
    • circa 1843, George Lippard, The Battle-Day of Germantown, reprinted in Washington and His Generals "1776", page 45 [1]:

      Like the crash of thunderbolts […] , the sound of musquetry broke over the lawn, […] .

22. (transitive) 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.

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

    His voice breaks (or cracks) when he gets emotional.

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

    He broke the mens' 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.

25. (sports and games):
    1. (intransitive, tennis) To win a game as receiver.

       He needs to break serve to win the match.

    2. (intransitive, billiards, snooker, pool) To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement.

       Is it your or my turn to break?

    3. (backgammon, transitive) To remove one of the two men on (a point).
26. (transitive, military, 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, William Manchester, 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, 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.

27. (transitive) 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.

28. (Can we verify⁽⁾ this sense?) (transitive, US) To arrange a temporary split (with a romantic partner).
29. (intransitive, of an emulsion) To demulsify.
    • 2004, J. L. Atwood, Jonathan W. Steed, Encyclopedia of supramolecular chemistry^[2], volume 2, page 1466:

      Conversely, as the emulsion breaks and the system returns to the original state, energy is released.

    • 2006, Johan Sjöblom, Emulsions and emulsion stability^[3], volume 22, page 400:

      When 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.

30. (intransitive, sports) To counter-attack
    • 2010 December 28, Kevin Darlin, “West Brom 1 - 3 Blackburn”, BBC:

      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

• For examples of the usage of this term see the citations page.

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

• (intransitive: end up in two or more pieces): burst, bust, shatter, shear, smash, split
• (transitive: cause to end up in two or more pieces): bust, shatter, shear, smash, split
• (intransitive: of a bone): crack, fracture
• (transitive: of a bone): crack, fracture
• (transitive: cause an animal to lose its will): subject, tame
• (transitive: do that which is forbidden by): contravene, go against, violate
• (intransitive: stop functioning): break down, bust, fail, go down (of a computer or computer network)

Antonyms

• (transitive: cause to end up in two or more pieces): assemble, fix, join, mend, put together, repair
• (tennis, intransitive: break serve): hold

Derived terms

See also

• breaking
• broke
• broken

Noun

break (plural breaks)

1. An instance of breaking something into two pieces.

   The femur has a clean break and so should heal easily.

2. A physical space that opens up in something or between two things.

   The sun came out in a break in the clouds.

   He waited minutes for a break in the traffic to cross the highway.

3. (music) A short section of music, often between verses, in which some performers stop while others continue.

   The fiddle break was amazing, it was a pity the singer came back in on the wrong note.

4. A rest or pause, usually from work; a breaktime.

   Let’s take a five-minute break.

5. A temporary split (with a romantic partner).

   I think we need a break.

6. An interval or intermission between two parts of a performance, for example a theatre show, broadcast, or sports game.
   • 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, BBC:

     But they marginally improved after the break as Didier Drogba hit the post.

7. A significant change in circumstance, attitude, perception, or focus of attention: big break, lucky break.
8. (UK, weather) a change; the end of a spell of persistent good or bad weather
9. The beginning (of the morning).

   daybreak

   at the break of day

10. An act of escaping.

    make a break for it

    make a break for the door

    It was a clean break.

    prison break

11. (surfing) A place where waves break (that is, where waves pitch or spill forward creating white water).

    The final break in the Greenmount area is Kirra Point.

12. (sports and games):
    1. (tennis) A game won by the receiving player(s).
    2. (billiards, snooker, pool) The first shot in a game of billiards
    3. (snooker) The number of points scored by one player in one visit to the table
    4. (soccer) The counter-attack
       • 2010 December 28, Owen Phillips, “Sunderland 0 - 2 Blackpool”, BBC:

         Blackpool were not without their opportunities - thanks to their willingness to commit and leave men forward even when under severe pressure - and they looked very capable of scoring on the break.

Usage notes

• (music): The instruments that are named are the ones that carry on playing, for example a fiddle break implies that the fiddle is the most prominent instrument playing during the break.

Synonyms

• (instance of breaking something into two pieces): split
• (physical space that opens up in something or between two things): breach, gap, space
• (rest or pause, usually from work): time out

Derived terms

Translations

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: authority · pleasant · forget · #862: break · Roman · wise ·

Anagrams

• baker, Baker
• brake

French

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bʁɛk/

Etymology 1

From English break.

Noun

break m. (plural breaks)

1. break (pause, holiday)

   C’est l’heure de faire un break.

Synonyms

• pause

Etymology 2

English shooting brake

Noun

break m. and f. (plural breaks)

1. estate car, station wagon

Italian

Etymology

English

Noun

break m. inv.

1. break (intermission or brief suspension of activity)

Interjection

break!

1. break! (boxing)

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