break - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English breken, from Old English brecan (“to break”), from Proto-West Germanic *brekan, from Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg- (“to break”). Doublet of bray.

Cognates

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

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

The modern pronunciation shows an irregular change of Early Modern English /ɛː/ to /eɪ/ in the standard language; contrast this with the development of other words such as speak and wreak.

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

  1. (ergative, transitive, intransitive) 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.
    In order to tend to the accident victim, he will break the window of the car.
    • 2012 May 8, Yotam Ottolenghi, Sami Tamimi, Ottolenghi: The Cookbook‎[3], Random House, →ISBN, page 79:
      First, marinate the tofu. In a bowl, whisk the kecap manis, chilli sauce, and sesame oil together. Cut the tofu into strips about 1cm thick, mix gently (so it doesn't break) with the marinade and leave in the fridge for half an hour.
    1. (transitive, intransitive) To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain.
      His ribs broke under the weight of the rocks piled on his chest.
      He slipped on the ice and broke his leg.
  2. (transitive) 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.
  3. (transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of.
    Her child’s death broke Angela.
    Interrogators have used many forms of torture to break prisoners of war.
    The interrogator hoped to break her to get her testimony against her accomplices.
    1. To turn an animal into a beast of burden.
      You have to break an elephant before you can use it as an animal of burden.
  4. (intransitive) To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief.
    My heart is breaking.
    • 1986 February 1, Kathy Jo Elliott, “Solid As A Rock”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 28, page 5:
      Two days later they transferred her to another prison to separate us. I broke. My life was gone, so I thought.
  5. (transitive) To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate.
    I’ve got to break this habit I have of biting my nails.
    to break silence; to break one's sleep; to break one’s journey
    I had won four games in a row, but now you've broken my streak of luck.
    1. (transitive, theater) To end the run of (a play).
      • 1958, Walter Macqueen-Pope, St. James's: Theatre of Distinction, page 134:
        In July Alexander broke the run and went on tour, as was his custom. He believed in keeping in touch with provincial audiences and how wise he was!
      • 1986, Kurt Gänzl, The British Musical Theatre: 1865-1914, page 610:
        After Camberwell he broke the play's season and brought it back in the autumn with a few revisions and a noticeably strengthened cast but without any special success.
  6. (transitive) To ruin financially.
    The recession broke some small businesses.
  7. (intransitive, obsolete) To fail in business; to go broke, to become bankrupt.
    • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Riches”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
      He that puts all upon adventures doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty.
    • 1791-92, Jane Austen, ‘A Collection of Letters’, Juvenilia:
      ‘I knew he was in some such low way—He broke did not he?’
  8. (finance, intransitive) Of prices on the stock exchange: to fall suddenly.
    • 2008, George Angell, Small Stocks for Big Profits:
      With a few exceptions, stock prices tend to follow the overall market averages. When you have a market decline, therefore, many stocks share the same overall chart pattern. Prices break and go sideways for a period of time.
  9. (transitive) To violate; to fail to adhere to.
    When you go to Vancouver, promise me you won't break the law.
    He broke his vows by cheating on his wife.
    to break one’s word
    Time travel would break the laws of physics.
  10. (intransitive, of a fever) To go down, in terms of temperature, indicating that the most dangerous part of the illness has passed.
    Susan's fever broke at about 3 AM, and the doctor said the worst was over.
  11. (intransitive, of a spell of settled weather) To end.
    The forecast says the hot weather will break by midweek.
  12. (intransitive, of a storm) To begin or end.
    We ran to find shelter before the storm broke.
    Around midday the storm broke, and the afternoon was calm and sunny.
  13. (intransitive, of morning, dawn, day etc.) To arrive.
    Morning has broken.
    The day broke crisp and clear.
  1. (transitive, gaming slang) To render (a game) unchallenging by altering its rules or exploiting loopholes or weaknesses in them in a way that gives a player an unfair advantage.
    Changing the rules to let white have three extra queens would break chess.
    I broke the RPG by training every member of my party to cast fireballs as well as use swords.
  2. (transitive, intransitive) 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?
  3. (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.
  4. (transitive) To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar.
    to break a seal
  5. (specifically) To cause the shell of (an egg) to crack, so that the inside (yolk) is accessible.
  6. (specifically) To open (a safe) without using the correct key, combination, or the like.
  7. (transitive) To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce.
    The cavalry were not able to break the British squares.
  8. (intransitive, of a wave of water) To collapse into surf, after arriving in shallow water.

    A wave breaking.
  9. (intransitive) To burst forth; to make its way; to come into view.
  10. (intransitive) To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily; to go on break.
    Let's break for lunch.
  11. (transitive) To interrupt (a fall) by inserting something so that the falling object does not (immediately) hit something else beneath.
    He survived the jump out the window because the bushes below broke his fall.
  12. (transitive, ergative) To disclose or make known an item of news, a band, 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.
    When news of their divorce broke...
  1. (intransitive, of a sound) To become audible suddenly.
  1. (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.
  2. (transitive, with for) To (attempt to) disengage and flee to; to make a run for.
  1. (copulative, informal) To suddenly become.
    Things began breaking bad for him when his parents died.
    The arrest was standard, when suddenly the suspect broke ugly.
  2. (intransitive, of a male voice) To become deeper at puberty.
  3. (intransitive, of a voice) To alter in type due to emotion or strain: in men, generally to go up, in women, sometimes to go down; to crack.
    His voice breaks when he gets emotional.
  4. (intransitive, of a sauce or emulsion) To de-emulsify.
  1. (transitive) 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.
  2. (sports and games):
  3. (transitive, tennis) To win a game (against one's opponent) as receiver.
    He needs to break serve to win the match.
    • 2012 June 28, Jamie Jackson, “Wimbledon 2012: Lukas Rosol shocked by miracle win over Rafael Nadal”, in the Guardian‎[9]:
      Yet when play restarted the Czech was a train that kept on running over Nadal. After breaking Nadal in the opening game of the final set, he went 2-0 up and later took the count to 4-2 with yet another emphatic ace – one of his 22 throughout.
  4. (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?
  5. (transitive, backgammon) To remove one of the two men on (a point).
  6. (transitive, military, most often in the passive tense) To demote; to reduce the military rank of.
  1. (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.
  2. (intransitive, sports) To counter-attack.
  1. (transitive, obsolete) To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate.
  1. (intransitive) To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.
  2. (transitive) To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of.
    to break flax
  3. (transitive) To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss.
  1. (intransitive) To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change gait.
    to break into a run or gallop
  2. (intransitive, archaic) To fall out; to terminate friendship.
  1. (computing) To terminate the execution of a program before normal completion.
  2. (programming) To suspend the execution of a program during debugging so that the state of the program can be investigated.
  3. (computing) To cause, or allow the occurrence of, a line break.
    zero-width non-breaking space

break (plural breaks)

  1. An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.
    Synonym: split
    The femur has a clean break and so should heal easily.
  2. A physical space that opens up in something or between two things.
    Synonyms: breach, gap, space; see also Thesaurus:interspace, Thesaurus:hole
    The sun came out in a break in the clouds.
    He waited minutes for a break in the traffic to cross the highway.
  3. An interruption of continuity; departure from or rupture with.
    • 1958 June, “New Track Layout and Marshalling Yard at Barking”, in Railway Magazine, page 428:
      Work commenced at 2.30 p.m. on Saturday and continued without break until 4 a.m. on Monday morning, in the course of which three shifts of upwards of 90 men each and three steam cranes were employed.
    • 2023 May 29, Jonathan Head, “Pita Limjaroenrat: Thai election upstart who vows to be different”, in BBC‎[11]:
      But the young activists of Move Forward outmanoeuvred the older party, and beat many of its candidates, with an imaginative, social media-based campaign offering voters a complete break with the past, and a different kind of political leadership.
  4. A rest or pause, usually from work.
    Synonyms: shift break, time-out; see also Thesaurus:pause
    Let’s take a five-minute break.
    1. (UK, education) A time for students to talk or play between lessons.
      Synonyms: (UK) playtime, (US) recess
      • 1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 35:
        It was playtime - or rather ‘break’ - and I had brazenly joined in a game of football on the school parade ground.
    2. A scheduled interval of days or weeks between periods of school instruction; a holiday.
      winter break, spring break
  5. A short holiday.
    Synonyms: day off, time off; see also Thesaurus:vacation
    a weekend break on the Isle of Wight
  6. A temporary split with a romantic partner.
    I think we need a break.
  7. 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”, in BBC‎[12]:
      But they marginally improved after the break as Didier Drogba hit the post.
  8. A significant change in circumstance, attitude, perception, or focus of attention.
    big break
    lucky break, bad break
    them's the breaks
  9. (finance) A sudden fall in prices on the stock exchange.
    • 1947, Reports of the Tax Court of the United States, volume 8, page 459:
      Following the invasion of France by the Germans in May of 1940, the securities markets experienced a break in prices.
  10. The beginning (of the morning).
    Synonyms: crack of dawn; see also Thesaurus:dawn
    at the break of day
  11. An act of escaping.
    to make a break for it; to make a break for the door
    It was a clean break.
    prison break
  12. (computing) The separation between lines, paragraphs or pages of a written text.
  1. (computing) A keystroke or other signal that causes a program to terminate or suspend execution.
  2. (programming) Ellipsis of breakpoint.
  3. (British, weather) A change, particularly the end of a spell of persistent good or bad weather.
  4. (sports and games):
  5. (tennis) A game won by the receiving player(s).
  6. (billiards, snooker, pool) The first shot in a game of billiards.
  7. (snooker) The number of points scored by one player in one visit to the table.
  8. (soccer) The counter-attack.
    • 2010 December 28, Owen Phillips, “Sunderland 0 - 2 Blackpool”, in BBC‎[13]:
      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.
  9. (golf) The curve imparted to the ball's motion on the green due to slope or grass texture.
  10. (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.
    • 1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer:
      One of the most popular summer breaks is just off to one side of the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor entrance, a spot called Ala Moana.
  11. (horse racing) The start of a horse race.
    • 1999, Jay Hovdey, Cigar: America's Horse, page 63:
      Cigar was distracted at the break and let his five opponents get the jump.
    • 2010, John Alexander, Exotic Wagering the Winning Way, page 60:
      Perhaps it stumbles to its knees at the break, effectively losing the race at the outset.
  12. The opening of packages of cards for a collectible card game, often for further distribution to paying customers.
  13. (dated) A large four-wheeled carriage, having a straight body and calash top, with the driver's seat in front and the footman's behind.
  14. Alternative form of brake (“cart or carriage without a body, for breaking in horses”)
  15. (equitation) A sharp bit or snaffle.
  1. (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.
  1. (music) The point in the musical scale at which a woodwind instrument is designed to overblow, that is, to move from its lower to its upper register.
    Crossing the break smoothly is one of the first lessons the young clarinettist needs to master.
  2. (music) The transition area between a singer's vocal registers; the passaggio.
  1. (geography, chiefly in the plural) An area along a river that features steep banks, bluffs, or gorges (e.g., Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, US).
  2. (obsolete, slang) An error. [late 19th–early 20th c.]
  1. ^ Jespersen, Otto (1909), A Modern English Grammar on Historical Principles (Sammlung germanischer Elementar- und Handbücher; 9)‎[1], volume I: Sounds and Spellings, London: George Allen & Unwin, published 1961, § 11.75, page 339.
  2. ^ Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700‎[2], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 115, page 625: “The sixteenth and seventeenth-century orthoepists do not distinguish great, break, steak, and yea from other ME ę̄ words.”

Clipping of breakdown (the percussion break of songs chosen by a DJ for use in hip-hop music) and see also breakdancing.

break (plural breaks)

  1. (music) A section of extended repetition of the percussion break to a song, created by a hip-hop DJ as rhythmic dance music.

break (third-person singular simple present breaks, present participle breaking, simple past and past participle breaked)

  1. (music, slang) To B-boy; to breakdance.
    • 1985, “King of Rock”, performed by Run-DMC:
      Let the poppers pop and the breakers break / We're cool, cool cats, it's like that
  2. (rare, mainly historical or a misspelling) To brake.
    • 1951 July, R. E. G. Read, “From Bere Alston to Callington”, in Railway Magazine, page 482:
      Breaking heavily, now on a 1 in 39 gradient, the train makes as if to cross the Tamar at once, only to swing sharply to the right, […] .

Borrowed from English break.

break m (plural breaks)

  1. break (pause, holiday)
    Synonym: pause
    C’est l’heure de faire un break. ― It's time to take a break.
  2. (tennis) break (of serve)

un break

From earlier break de chasse, from English shooting brake.

break m (plural breaks)

  1. (automotive) estate car, station wagon
    Antonym: berline

Unadapted borrowing from English break.

break

  1. (slang) to break temporary in dating

Unadapted borrowing from English break.

break m (invariable)

  1. (gay culture) break (intermission or brief suspension of activity)

break

  1. break! (boxing)

  2. ^ break in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

break m (invariable)

  1. clipping of breakdance

Borrowed from English break.

break m (plural breaks)

  1. break (rest or pause)

Borrowed from English break.

break m (plural breaks)

  1. break (pause)
  2. (tennis) break