Break vs. Fix

Breakverb

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.’;

Fixnoun

A repair or corrective action.

‘That plumber's fix is much better than the first one's.’;

Breakverb

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

‘His ribs broke under the weight of the rocks piled on his chest.’; ‘She broke her neck.’; ‘He slipped on the ice and broke his leg.’;

Fixnoun

A difficult situation; a quandary or dilemma; a predicament.

‘It rained before we repaired the roof, and were we in a fix!’;

Breakverb

(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.’;

Fixnoun

(informal) A single dose of an addictive drug administered to a drug user.

Breakverb

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

Fixnoun

A prearrangement of the outcome of a supposedly competitive process, such as a sporting event, a game, an election, a trial, or a bid.

Breakverb

(intransitive) To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief.

‘My heart is breaking.’;

Fixnoun

A determination of location.

‘We have a fix on your position.’;

Breakverb

(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.’;

Fixnoun

(US) fettlings (mixture used to line a furnace)

Breakverb

(transitive) To ruin financially.

‘The recession broke some small businesses.’;

Fixverb

To pierce; now generally replaced by transfix.

Breakverb

(transitive) To violate, to not adhere to.

‘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’; ‘Time travel would break the laws of physics.’;

Fixverb

(Of a piercing look) to direct at someone.

‘He fixed me with a sickly grin, and said, "I told you it wouldn't work!"’;

Breakverb

To pass the most dangerous part of the illness; to go down, in terms of temperature.

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

Fixverb

(transitive) To attach; to affix; to hold in place or at a particular time.

‘A dab of chewing gum will fix your note to the bulletin board.’; ‘A leech can fix itself to your skin without you feeling it.’; ‘The Constitution fixes the date when Congress must meet.’;

Breakverb

To end.

‘The forecast says the hot weather will break by midweek.’;

Fixverb

To focus or determine (oneself, on a concept); to fixate.

‘She's fixed on the idea of becoming a doctor.’;

Breakverb

To begin; to end.

‘We ran to find shelter before the storm broke.’; ‘Around midday the storm broke, and the afternoon was calm and sunny.’;

Fixverb

(transitive) To mend, to repair.

‘That heater will start a fire if you don't fix it.’;

Breakverb

To arrive.

‘Morning has broken.’; ‘The day broke crisp and clear.’;

Fixverb

To prepare (food).

‘She fixed dinner for the kids.’;

Breakverb

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.’;

Fixverb

(transitive) To make (a contest, vote, or gamble) unfair; to privilege one contestant or a particular group of contestants, usually before the contest begins; to arrange immunity for defendants by tampering with the justice system via bribery or extortion

‘A majority of voters believed the election was fixed in favor of the incumbent.’;

Breakverb

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?’;

Fixverb

To surgically render an animal, especially a pet, infertile.

‘Rover stopped digging under the fence after we had the vet fix him.’;

Breakverb

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.’;

Fixverb

To map a (point or subset) to itself.

Breakverb

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

‘break a seal’;

Fixverb

To take revenge on, to best; to serve justice on an assumed miscreant.

‘He got caught breaking into lockers, so a couple of guys fixed him after work.’;

Breakverb

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

Fixverb

(transitive) To render (a photographic impression) permanent by treating with such applications as will make it insensitive to the action of light.

Breakverb

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

Fixverb

To convert into a stable or available form.

‘Legumes are valued in crop rotation for their ability to fix nitrogen.’;

Breakverb

(transitive) To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce.

‘The cavalry were not able to break the British squares.’;

Fixverb

(intransitive) To become fixed; to settle or remain permanently; to cease from wandering; to rest.

Breakverb

To collapse into surf, after arriving in shallow water.

Fixverb

(intransitive) To become firm, so as to resist volatilization; to cease to flow or be fluid; to congeal; to become hard and malleable, as a metallic substance.

Breakverb

(intransitive) To burst forth; to make its way; to come into view.

Fixadjective

Fixed; solidified.

Breakverb

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

‘Let's break for lunch.’;

Fixverb

To make firm, stable, or fast; to set or place permanently; to fasten immovably; to establish; to implant; to secure; to make definite.

‘An ass's nole I fixed on his head.’; ‘O, fix thy chair of grace, that all my powersMay also fix their reverence.’; ‘His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.’; ‘And fix far deeper in his head their stings.’;

Breakverb

(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.’;

Fixverb

To hold steadily; to direct unwaveringly; to fasten, as the eye on an object, the attention on a speaker.

‘Sat fixed in thought the mighty Stagirite.’; ‘One eye on death, and one full fix'd on heaven.’;

Breakverb

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, ...’;

Fixverb

To transfix; to pierce.

Breakverb

To become audible suddenly.

Fixverb

To render (an impression) permanent by treating with a developer to make it insensible to the action of light.

Breakverb

(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.’;

Fixverb

To put in order; to arrange; to dispose of; to adjust; to set to rights; to set or place in the manner desired or most suitable; hence, to repair; as, to fix the clothes; to fix the furniture of a room.

Breakverb

To suddenly become.

‘Things began breaking bad for him when his parents died.’; ‘The arrest was standard, when suddenly the suspect broke ugly.’;

Fixverb

To line the hearth of (a puddling furnace) with fettling.

Breakverb

(intransitive) Of a male voice, to become deeper at puberty.

Fixverb

To become fixed; to settle or remain permanently; to cease from wandering; to rest.

‘Your kindness banishes your fear,Resolved to fix forever here.’;

Breakverb

(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.’;

Fixverb

To become firm, so as to resist volatilization; to cease to flow or be fluid; to congeal; to become hard and malleable, as a metallic substance.

Breakverb

(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.’;

Fixnoun

A position of difficulty or embarassment; predicament; dilemma.

‘Is he not living, then? No. is he dead, then? No, nor dead either. Poor Aroar can not live, and can not die, - so that he is in an almighty fix.’;

Breakverb

:

Fixnoun

fettling.

Breakverb

To win a game (against one's opponent) as receiver.

‘He needs to break serve to win the match.’;

Fixnoun

informal terms for a difficult situation;

‘he got into a terrible fix’; ‘he made a muddle of his marriage’;

Breakverb

To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement.

‘Is it your or my turn to break?’;

Fixnoun

something craved, especially an intravenous injection of a narcotic drug;

‘she needed a fix of chocolate’;

Breakverb

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

Fixnoun

the act of putting something in working order again

Breakverb

To demote, to reduce the military rank of.

Fixnoun

an exemption granted after influence (e.g., money) is brought to bear;

‘collusion resulted in tax fixes for gamblers’;

Breakverb

(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.’;

Fixnoun

a determination of the location of something;

‘he got a good fix on the target’;

Breakverb

To demulsify.

Fixverb

restore by replacing a part or putting together what is torn or broken;

‘She repaired her TV set’; ‘Repair my shoes please’;

Breakverb

To counter-attack

Fixverb

cause to be firmly attached;

‘fasten the lock onto the door’; ‘she fixed her gaze on the man’;

Breakverb

To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate.

Fixverb

decide upon or fix definitely;

‘fix the variables’; ‘specify the parameters’;

Breakverb

(intransitive) To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.

Fixverb

prepare for eating by applying heat;

‘Cook me dinner, please’; ‘can you make me an omelette?’; ‘fix breakfast for the guests, please’;

Breakverb

To fail in business; to become bankrupt.

Fixverb

take vengeance on or get even;

‘We'll get them!’; ‘That'll fix him good!’; ‘This time I got him’;

Breakverb

(transitive) To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of.

‘to break flax’;

Fixverb

set or place definitely;

‘Let's fix the date for the party!’;

Breakverb

(transitive) To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss.

Fixverb

kill, preserve, and harden (tissue) in order to prepare for microscopic study

Breakverb

(intransitive) To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait.

‘to break into a run or gallop’;

Fixverb

make fixed, stable or stationary;

‘let's fix the picture to the frame’;

Breakverb

To fall out; to terminate friendship.

Fixverb

make infertile;

‘in some countries, people with genetically transmissible disbilites are sterilized’;

Breaknoun

An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.

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

Fixverb

put (something somewhere) firmly;

‘She posited her hand on his shoulder’; ‘deposit the suitcase on the bench’; ‘fix your eyes on this spot’;

Breaknoun

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.’;

Fixverb

make ready or suitable or equip in advance for a particular purpose or for some use, event, etc;

‘Get the children ready for school!’; ‘prepare for war’; ‘I was fixing to leave town after I paid the hotel bill’;

Breaknoun

A rest or pause, usually from work.

‘Let’s take a five-minute break.’;

Breaknoun

A short holiday.

‘a weekend break on the Isle of Wight’;

Breaknoun

A temporary split with a romantic partner.

‘I think we need a break.’;

Breaknoun

An interval or intermission between two parts of a performance, for example a theatre show, broadcast, or sports game.

Breaknoun

A significant change in circumstance, attitude, perception, or focus of attention.

‘big break’; ‘lucky break, bad break’;

Breaknoun

The beginning (of the morning).

‘at the break of day’;

Breaknoun

An act of escaping.

‘make a break for it, for the door’; ‘It was a clean break.’; ‘prison break’;

Breaknoun

The separation between lines or paragraphs of a written text.

Breaknoun

A change, particularly the end of a spell of persistent good or bad weather.

Breaknoun

:

Breaknoun

(tennis) A game won by the receiving player(s).

Breaknoun

The first shot in a game of billiards

Breaknoun

(snooker) The number of points scored by one player in one visit to the table

Breaknoun

(soccer) The counter-attack

Breaknoun

(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.’;

Breaknoun

(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.

Breaknoun

(equitation) A sharp bit or snaffle.

Breaknoun

(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.’;

Breaknoun

(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.’;

Breaknoun

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

Breakverb

To strain apart; to sever by fracture; to divide with violence; as, to break a rope or chain; to break a seal; to break an axle; to break rocks or coal; to break a lock.

Breakverb

To lay open as by breaking; to divide; as, to break a package of goods.

Breakverb

To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate.

‘Katharine, break thy mind to me.’;

Breakverb

To infringe or violate, as an obligation, law, or promise.

‘Out, out, hyena! these are thy wonted arts . . . To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray.’;

Breakverb

To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate; as, to break silence; to break one's sleep; to break one's journey.

‘Go, release them, Ariel;My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore.’;

Breakverb

To destroy the completeness of; to remove a part from; as, to break a set.

Breakverb

To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce; as, the cavalry were not able to break the British squares.

Breakverb

To shatter to pieces; to reduce to fragments.

‘The victim broke in pieces the musical instruments with which he had solaced the hours of captivity.’;

Breakverb

To exchange for other money or currency of smaller denomination; as, to break a five dollar bill.

Breakverb

To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of; as, to break flax.

Breakverb

To weaken or impair, as health, spirit, or mind.

‘An old man, broken with the storms of state.’;

Breakverb

To diminish the force of; to lessen the shock of, as a fall or blow.

‘I'll rather leap down first, and break your fall.’;

Breakverb

To impart, as news or information; to broach; - with to, and often with a modified word implying some reserve; as, to break the news gently to the widow; to break a purpose cautiously to a friend.

Breakverb

To tame; to reduce to subjection; to make tractable; to discipline; as, to break a horse to the harness or saddle.

‘Why, then thou canst not break her to the lute?’;

Breakverb

To destroy the financial credit of; to make bankrupt; to ruin.

‘With arts like these rich Matho, when he speaks,Attracts all fees, and little lawyers breaks.’;

Breakverb

To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss.

‘I see a great officer broken.’;

Breakverb

To come apart or divide into two or more pieces, usually with suddenness and violence; to part; to burst asunder.

Breakverb

To open spontaneously, or by pressure from within, as a bubble, a tumor, a seed vessel, a bag.

‘Else the bottle break, and the wine runneth out.’;

Breakverb

To burst forth; to make its way; to come to view; to appear; to dawn.

‘The day begins to break, and night is fled.’; ‘And from the turf a fountain broke,and gurgled at our feet.’;

Breakverb

To burst forth violently, as a storm.

‘The clouds are still above; and, while I speak,A second deluge o'er our head may break.’;

Breakverb

To open up; to be scattered; to be dissipated; as, the clouds are breaking.

‘At length the darkness begins to break.’;

Breakverb

To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.

‘See how the dean begins to break;Poor gentleman! he droops apace.’;

Breakverb

To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief; as, my heart is breaking.

Breakverb

To fall in business; to become bankrupt.

‘He that puts all upon adventures doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty.’;

Breakverb

To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait; as, to break into a run or gallop.

Breakverb

To fail in musical quality; as, a singer's voice breaks when it is strained beyond its compass and a tone or note is not completed, but degenerates into an unmusical sound instead. Also, to change in tone, as a boy's voice at puberty.

Breakverb

To fall out; to terminate friendship.

‘To break upon the score of danger or expense is to be mean and narrow-spirited.’; ‘Fear me not, man; I will not break away.’; ‘He had broken down almost at the outset.’; ‘This radiant from the circling crowd he broke.’;

Breaknoun

An opening made by fracture or disruption.

Breaknoun

An interruption of continuity; change of direction; as, a break in a wall; a break in the deck of a ship.

Breaknoun

An interruption; a pause; as, a break in friendship; a break in the conversation.

Breaknoun

An interruption in continuity in writing or printing, as where there is an omission, an unfilled line, etc.

‘All modern trash isSet forth with numerous breaks and dashes.’;

Breaknoun

The first appearing, as of light in the morning; the dawn; as, the break of day; the break of dawn.

Breaknoun

A large four-wheeled carriage, having a straight body and calash top, with the driver's seat in front and the footman's behind.

Breaknoun

A device for checking motion, or for measuring friction. See Brake, n. 9 & 10.

Breaknoun

See Commutator.

Breaknoun

some abrupt occurrence that interrupts;

‘the telephone is an annoying interruption’; ‘there was a break in the action when a player was hurt’;

Breaknoun

an unexpected piece of good luck;

‘he finally got his big break’;

Breaknoun

(geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other;

‘they built it right over a geological fault’;

Breaknoun

a personal or social separation (as between opposing factions);

‘they hoped to avoid a break in relations’;

Breaknoun

a pause from doing something (as work);

‘we took a 10-minute break’; ‘he took time out to recuperate’;

Breaknoun

the act of breaking something;

‘the breakage was unavoidable’;

Breaknoun

a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something

Breaknoun

breaking of hard tissue such as bone;

‘it was a nasty fracture’; ‘the break seems to have been caused by a fall’;

Breaknoun

the occurrence of breaking;

‘the break in the dam threatened the valley’;

Breaknoun

the opening shot that scatters the balls in billiards or pool

Breaknoun

(tennis) a score consisting of winning a game when your opponent was serving;

‘he was up two breaks in the second set’;

Breaknoun

an act of delaying or interrupting the continuity;

‘it was presented without commercial breaks’;

Breaknoun

a sudden dash;

‘he made a break for the open door’;

Breaknoun

any frame in which a bowler fails to make a strike or spare;

‘the break in the eighth frame cost him the match’;

Breaknoun

an escape from jail;

‘the breakout was carefully planned’;

Breakverb

terminate;

‘She interrupted her pregnancy’; ‘break a lucky streak’; ‘break the cycle of poverty’;

Breakverb

become separated into pieces or fragments;

‘The figurine broke’; ‘The freshly baked loaf fell apart’;

Breakverb

destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments;

‘He broke the glass plate’; ‘She broke the match’;

Breakverb

render inoperable or ineffective;

‘You broke the alarm clock when you took it apart!’;

Breakverb

ruin completely;

‘He busted my radio!’;

Breakverb

act in disregard of laws and rules;

‘offend all laws of humanity’; ‘violate the basic laws or human civilization’; ‘break a law’;

Breakverb

move away or escape suddenly;

‘The horses broke from the stable’; ‘Three inmates broke jail’; ‘Nobody can break out--this prison is high security’;

Breakverb

scatter or part;

‘The clouds broke after the heavy downpour’;

Breakverb

force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up;

‘break into tears’; ‘erupt in anger’;

Breakverb

prevent completion;

‘stop the project’; ‘break off the negociations’;

Breakverb

enter someone's property in an unauthorized manner, usually with the intent to steal or commit a violent act;

‘Someone broke in while I was on vacation’; ‘They broke into my car and stole my radio!’;

Breakverb

make submissive, obedient, or useful;

‘The horse was tough to break’; ‘I broke in the new intern’;

Breakverb

fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns;

‘This sentence violates the rules of syntax’;

Breakverb

surpass in excellence;

‘She bettered her own record’; ‘break a record’;

Breakverb

make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret;

‘The auction house would not disclose the price at which the van Gogh had sold’; ‘The actress won't reveal how old she is’; ‘bring out the truth’; ‘he broke the news to her’;

Breakverb

come into being;

‘light broke over the horizon’; ‘Voices broke in the air’;

Breakverb

stop operating or functioning;

‘The engine finally went’; ‘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’;

Breakverb

interrupt a continued activity;

‘She had broken with the traditional patterns’;

Breakverb

make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing;

‘The ranks broke’;

Breakverb

curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves;

‘The surf broke’;

Breakverb

lessen in force or effect;

‘soften a shock’; ‘break a fall’;

Breakverb

be broken in;

‘If the new teacher won't break, we'll add some stress’;

Breakverb

come to an end;

‘The heat wave finally broke yesterday’;

Breakverb

vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity;

‘The flat plain was broken by tall mesas’;

Breakverb

cause to give up a habit;

‘She finally broke herself of smoking cigarettes’;

Breakverb

give up;

‘break cigarette smoking’;

Breakverb

come forth or begin from a state of latency;

‘The first winter storm broke over New York’;

Breakverb

happen or take place;

‘Things have been breaking pretty well for us in the past few months’;

Breakverb

cause the failure or ruin of;

‘His peccadilloes finally broke his marriage’; ‘This play will either make or break the playwright’;

Breakverb

invalidate by judicial action;

‘The will was broken’;

Breakverb

discontinue an association or relation; go different ways;

‘The business partners broke over a tax question’; ‘The couple separated after 25 years of marriage’; ‘My friend and I split up’;

Breakverb

assign to a lower position; reduce in rank;

‘She was demoted because she always speaks up’; ‘He was broken down to Sargeant’;

Breakverb

reduce to bankruptcy;

‘My daughter's fancy wedding is going to break me!’; ‘The slump in the financial markets smashed him’;

Breakverb

change directions suddenly

Breakverb

emerge from the surface of a body of water;

‘The whales broke’;

Breakverb

break down, literally or metaphorically;

‘The wall collapsed’; ‘The business collapsed’; ‘The dam broke’; ‘The roof collapsed’; ‘The wall gave in’; ‘The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice’;

Breakverb

do a break dance;

‘Kids were break-dancing at the street corner’;

Breakverb

exchange for smaller units of money;

‘I had to break a $100 bill just to buy the candy’;

Breakverb

destroy the completeness of a set of related items;

‘The book dealer would not break the set’;

Breakverb

make the opening shot that scatters the balls

Breakverb

separate from a clinch, in boxing;

‘The referee broke the boxers’;

Breakverb

go to pieces;

‘The lawn mower finally broke’; ‘The gears wore out’; ‘The old chair finally fell apart completely’;

Breakverb

break a piece from a whole;

‘break a branch from a tree’;

Breakverb

become punctured or penetrated;

‘The skin broke’;

Breakverb

pierce or penetrate;

‘The blade broke her skin’;

Breakverb

be released or become known; of news;

‘News of her death broke in the morning’;

Breakverb

cease an action temporarily;

‘We pause for station identification’; ‘let's break for lunch’;

Breakverb

interrupt the flow of current in;

‘break a circuit’;

Breakverb

undergo breaking;

‘The simple vowels broke in many Germanic languages’;

Breakverb

find a flaw in;

‘break an alibi’; ‘break down a proof’;

Breakverb

find the solution or key to;

‘break the code’;

Breakverb

change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another;

‘Her voice broke to a whisper when she started to talk about her children’;

Breakverb

happen;

‘Report the news as it develops’; ‘These political movements recrudesce from time to time’;

Breakverb

become fractured; break or crack on the surface only;

‘The glass cracked when it was heated’;

Breakverb

of the male voice in puberty;

‘his voice is breaking--he should no longer sing in the choir’;

Breakverb

fall sharply;

‘stock prices broke’;

Breakverb

fracture a bone of;

‘I broke my foot while playing hockey’;

Breakverb

diminish or discontinue abruptly;

‘The patient's fever broke last night’;

Breakverb

weaken or destroy in spirit or body;

‘His resistance was broken’; ‘a man broken by the terrible experience of near-death’;

Breakverb

separate into pieces as a result of a blow, shock, or strain

‘the rope broke with a loud snap’; ‘windows in the street were broken by the blast’;

Breakverb

sustain an injury involving the fracture of a bone or bones in a part of the body

‘what if his leg had broken?’; ‘she had broken her leg in two places’;

Breakverb

cause a cut or graze in (the skin)

‘the bite had scarcely broken the skin’;

Breakverb

make or become inoperative

‘he's broken the video’; ‘the machine has broken and they can't fix it until next week’;

Breakverb

(of the amniotic fluid surrounding a fetus) be discharged when the sac is ruptured in the first stages of labour

‘she realized her waters had broken’;

Breakverb

open (a safe) forcibly.

Breakverb

use (a banknote) to pay for something and receive change out of the transaction

‘she had to break a tenner’;

Breakverb

(of two boxers or wrestlers) come out of a clinch, especially at the referee's command

‘I was acting as referee and telling them to break’;

Breakverb

make the first stroke at the beginning of a game of billiards, pool, or snooker.

Breakverb

unfurl (a flag or sail).

Breakverb

succeed in deciphering (a code)

‘ciphers are easily broken by the new wonder machines’;

Breakverb

disprove (an alibi).

Breakverb

interrupt (a continuity, sequence, or course)

‘the new government broke the pattern of growth’; ‘his concentration was broken by a sound’;

Breakverb

put an end to (a silence) by speaking or making contact

‘it was some time before he broke the silence’;

Breakverb

make a pause in (a journey)

‘we will break our journey in Venice’;

Breakverb

stop proceedings in order to have a pause or vacation

‘at mid-morning they broke for coffee’;

Breakverb

lessen the impact of (a fall)

‘she put out an arm to break her fall’;

Breakverb

disconnect or interrupt (an electric circuit)

‘a multimeter able to measure current without having to break the circuit under test’;

Breakverb

stop oneself from engaging in (a habitual practice)

‘try to break the habit of adding salt at the table’;

Breakverb

surpass (a record)

‘the film broke box office records in the US’;

Breakverb

fail to observe (a law, regulation, or agreement)

‘the council says it will prosecute traders who break the law’; ‘a legally binding contract which can only be broken by mutual consent’;

Breakverb

fail to continue with (a self-imposed discipline)

‘diets started without preparation are broken all the time’;

Breakverb

crush the emotional strength, spirit, or resistance of

‘the idea was to better the prisoners, not to break them’;

Breakverb

(of a person's emotional strength or control) give way

‘her self-control finally broke’;

Breakverb

destroy the power of (a movement or organization)

‘strategies used to break the union’;

Breakverb

destroy the effectiveness of (a strike), typically by moving in other people to replace the striking workers

‘a government threat to use the army to break the strike’;

Breakverb

(of the weather) change suddenly, especially after a fine spell

‘the weather broke and thunder rumbled through a leaden sky’;

Breakverb

(of a storm) begin violently

‘when all were aboard, the storm broke’;

Breakverb

(of dawn or a day) begin as the sun rises

‘dawn was just breaking’;

Breakverb

(of clouds) move apart and begin to disperse

‘on the seventh of September the clouds broke for the first time’;

Breakverb

(of waves) curl over and dissolve into foam

‘the Caribbean sea was breaking gently on the shore’;

Breakverb

(of a person's voice) falter and change tone, due to emotion

‘her voice broke as she relived the experience’;

Breakverb

(of a boy's voice) change in tone and register at puberty

‘after his voice broke, he left the choir’;

Breakverb

(of a vowel) develop into a diphthong, under the influence of an adjacent sound.

Breakverb

(of prices on the stock exchange) fall sharply.

Breakverb

(of news or a scandal) suddenly become public

‘since the news broke I've received thousands of wonderful letters’;

Breakverb

make bad news known to (someone)

‘he was trying to break the terrible news gently to his father’;

Breakverb

(chiefly of an attacking player or team, or of a military force) make a rush or dash in a particular direction

‘Mitchell won possession and broke quickly, allowing Hughes to score’;

Breakverb

(of a bowled cricket ball) change direction on bouncing, due to spin.

Breakverb

(of a ball) rebound unpredictably

‘the ball broke to Craig but his shot rebounded from the post’;

Breaknoun

an interruption of continuity or uniformity

‘the magazine has been published without a break since 1950’;

Breaknoun

an act of separating oneself from a pre-existing state of affairs

‘a break with the past’;

Breaknoun

a change in the weather

‘a week or so may pass without a break in the weather’;

Breaknoun

a change of line, paragraph, or page

‘dotted lines on the screen show page breaks’;

Breaknoun

a change of tone in a person's voice due to emotion

‘there was a break in her voice now’;

Breaknoun

an interruption in an electric circuit.

Breaknoun

the winning of a game against an opponent's serve.

Breaknoun

a pause in work or during an activity or event

‘I need a break from mental activity’; ‘a coffee break’; ‘those returning to work after a career break’;

Breaknoun

an interval during the school day

‘the bell went for break’;

Breaknoun

a short holiday

‘a weekend break in the Cotswolds’;

Breaknoun

a short solo or instrumental passage in jazz or popular music.

Breaknoun

dance music featuring breakbeats.

Breaknoun

a gap or opening

‘the track bends left through a break in the hedge’; ‘he stopped to wait for a break in the traffic’;

Breaknoun

an instance of breaking something, or the point where something is broken

‘he was stretchered off with a break to the leg’;

Breaknoun

a rush or dash in a particular direction, especially by an attacking player or team

‘Norwich scored on a rare break with 11 minutes left’;

Breaknoun

an escape, typically from prison.

Breaknoun

a change in the direction of a bowled ball on bouncing.

Breaknoun

an opportunity or chance, especially one leading to professional success

‘he got his break as an entertainer on a TV music hall show’;

Breaknoun

a consecutive series of successful shots, scoring a specified number of points

‘a break of 83 put him in front for the first time’;

Breaknoun

a player's turn to make the opening shot of a game

‘whose break is it?’;

Breaknoun

a bud or shoot sprouting from a stem.

Breaknoun

former term for breaking cart

Breaknoun

another term for brake