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Break   /breɪk/   Listen
Break

verb
(past broke, obs. brake; past part. broken, obs. broke; pres. part. breaking)
1.
Terminate.  Synonym: interrupt.  "Break a lucky streak" , "Break the cycle of poverty"
2.
Become separated into pieces or fragments.  Synonyms: come apart, fall apart, separate, split up.  "The freshly baked loaf fell apart"
3.
Render inoperable or ineffective.
4.
Ruin completely.  Synonym: bust.
5.
Destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments.  "She broke the match"
6.
Act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises.  Synonyms: breach, go against, infract, offend, transgress, violate.  "Violate the basic laws or human civilization" , "Break a law" , "Break a promise"
7.
Move away or escape suddenly.  Synonyms: break away, break out.  "Three inmates broke jail" , "Nobody can break out--this prison is high security"
8.
Scatter or part.
9.
Force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up.  Synonyms: burst, erupt.  "Erupt in anger"
10.
Prevent completion.  Synonyms: break off, discontinue, stop.  "Break off the negotiations"
11.
Enter someone's (virtual or real) property in an unauthorized manner, usually with the intent to steal or commit a violent act.  Synonym: break in.  "They broke into my car and stole my radio!" , "Who broke into my account last night?"
12.
Make submissive, obedient, or useful.  Synonym: break in.  "I broke in the new intern"
13.
Fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns.  Synonyms: go against, violate.
14.
Surpass in excellence.  Synonym: better.  "Break a record"
15.
Make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret.  Synonyms: bring out, disclose, discover, divulge, expose, give away, let on, let out, reveal, unwrap.  "The actress won't reveal how old she is" , "Bring out the truth" , "He broke the news to her" , "Unwrap the evidence in the murder case"
16.
Come into being.  "Voices broke in the air"
17.
Stop operating or functioning.  Synonyms: break down, conk out, die, fail, give out, give way, go, go bad.  "The car died on the road" , "The bus we travelled in broke down on the way to town" , "The coffee maker broke" , "The engine failed on the way to town" , "Her eyesight went after the accident"
18.
Interrupt a continued activity.  Synonym: break away.
19.
Make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing.
20.
Curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves.
21.
Lessen in force or effect.  Synonyms: damp, dampen, soften, weaken.  "Break a fall"
22.
Be broken in.
23.
Come to an end.
24.
Vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity.
25.
Cause to give up a habit.
26.
Give up.
27.
Come forth or begin from a state of latency.
28.
Happen or take place.
29.
Cause the failure or ruin of.  "This play will either make or break the playwright"
30.
Invalidate by judicial action.
31.
Discontinue an association or relation; go different ways.  Synonyms: break up, part, separate, split, split up.  "The couple separated after 25 years of marriage" , "My friend and I split up"
32.
Assign to a lower position; reduce in rank.  Synonyms: bump, demote, kick downstairs, relegate.  "He was broken down to Sergeant"
33.
Reduce to bankruptcy.  Synonyms: bankrupt, ruin, smash.  "The slump in the financial markets smashed him"
34.
Change directions suddenly.
35.
Emerge from the surface of a body of water.
36.
Break down, literally or metaphorically.  Synonyms: cave in, collapse, fall in, founder, give, give way.  "The business collapsed" , "The dam broke" , "The roof collapsed" , "The wall gave in" , "The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice"
37.
Do a break dance.  Synonyms: break-dance, break dance.
38.
Exchange for smaller units of money.
39.
Destroy the completeness of a set of related items.  Synonym: break up.
40.
Make the opening shot that scatters the balls.
41.
Separate from a clinch, in boxing.
42.
Go to pieces.  Synonyms: bust, fall apart, wear, wear out.  "The gears wore out" , "The old chair finally fell apart completely"
43.
Break a piece from a whole.  Synonyms: break off, snap off.
44.
Become punctured or penetrated.
45.
Pierce or penetrate.
46.
Be released or become known; of news.  Synonyms: get around, get out.
47.
Cease an action temporarily.  Synonyms: intermit, pause.  "Let's break for lunch"
48.
Interrupt the flow of current in.
49.
Undergo breaking.
50.
Find a flaw in.  "Break down a proof"
51.
Find the solution or key to.
52.
Change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another.
53.
Happen.  Synonyms: develop, recrudesce.  "These political movements recrudesce from time to time"
54.
Become fractured; break or crack on the surface only.  Synonyms: check, crack.
55.
Crack; of the male voice in puberty.
56.
Fall sharply.
57.
Fracture a bone of.  Synonym: fracture.
58.
Diminish or discontinue abruptly.
59.
Weaken or destroy in spirit or body.  "A man broken by the terrible experience of near-death"
noun
1.
Some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity.  Synonym: interruption.  "There was a break in the action when a player was hurt"
2.
An unexpected piece of good luck.  Synonyms: good luck, happy chance.
3.
(geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other.  Synonyms: fault, faulting, fracture, geological fault, shift.  "He studied the faulting of the earth's crust"
4.
A personal or social separation (as between opposing factions).  Synonyms: breach, falling out, rift, rupture, severance.
5.
A pause from doing something (as work).  Synonyms: recess, respite, time out.  "He took time out to recuperate"
6.
The act of breaking something.  Synonyms: breakage, breaking.
7.
A time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something.  Synonyms: intermission, interruption, pause, suspension.
8.
Breaking of hard tissue such as bone.  Synonym: fracture.  "The break seems to have been caused by a fall"
9.
The occurrence of breaking.
10.
An abrupt change in the tone or register of the voice (as at puberty or due to emotion).
11.
The opening shot that scatters the balls in billiards or pool.
12.
(tennis) a score consisting of winning a game when your opponent was serving.  Synonym: break of serve.
13.
An act of delaying or interrupting the continuity.  Synonyms: disruption, gap, interruption.  "There was a gap in his account"
14.
A sudden dash.
15.
Any frame in which a bowler fails to make a strike or spare.  Synonym: open frame.
16.
An escape from jail.  Synonyms: breakout, gaolbreak, jailbreak, prison-breaking, prisonbreak.



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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University


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"Break" Quotes from Famous Books



... bominable cold, and the old bag kept turnin round and swingin so it made me sea-sick as the mischief. I was afraid to move for fear the rope would break and let me fall, and thar I sot with my teeth rattlin like I had a ager. It seemed like it would never come daylight, and I do believe if I didn't love Miss Mary so powerful I would froze to death; for my heart was the ...
— Southern Literature From 1579-1895 • Louise Manly
... the entrance of cold water into the tank and for the supply of hot water to the fixtures (see Fig. 71). The cold-water inlet has a tube extending into the tank below the side connection. This tube has a small hole filed in it about 6 inches from the top. This hole is to break any syphonic action that may occur at any time. The side connection is for the connection of the pipe coming from the top of the water back. The bottom opening in the tank is for the connection of the pipe coming from the lower water back connection, also for ...
— Elements of Plumbing • Samuel Dibble
... away, for, if ye lend to them from whom ye hope to receive, what new thing do ye? for even the publicans do this. But ye, lay not up for yourselves upon the earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and robbers break through, but lay up for yourselves in the heavens, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world but destroy his soul? or what shall he give in exchange for it? Lay up, ...
— The Lost Gospel and Its Contents - Or, The Author of "Supernatural Religion" Refuted by Himself • Michael F. Sadler
... their ordinary height, the waters of the smaller streams, which are backed up by the freshets of the former, break over their banks, and cover all the low grounds. Here they stand for a few days, or for many weeks, especially towards the bluffs; for it is a striking fact in the geology of the western country, ...
— A New Guide for Emigrants to the West • J. M. Peck
... Palermo to break the news to Miss Kitwater. Shocked though she was, she received the tidings with greater calmness than I had expected she would do. Perhaps, after all, she felt that it was better that ...
— My Strangest Case • Guy Boothby


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