Break vs. Oath — What's the Difference?

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

Traditionally an oath (from Anglo-Saxon āð, also called plight) is either a statement of fact or a promise with wording relating to something considered sacred as a sign of verity. A common legal substitute for those who conscientiously object to making sacred oaths is to give an affirmation instead.

Interrupt (a continuity, sequence, or course)

A solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness, regarding one's future action or behaviour

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

A profane or offensive expression used to express anger or other strong emotions

Crush the emotional strength, spirit, or resistance of

A solemn, formal declaration or promise to fulfill a pledge, often calling on God, a god, or a sacred object as witness.

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

The words or formula of such a declaration or promise.

(of news or a scandal) suddenly become public

Something declared or promised.

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

An irreverent or blasphemous use of the name of God or something held sacred.

An interruption of continuity or uniformity

An imprecation; a curse.

A pause in work or during an activity or event

A solemn pledge or promise that invokes a deity, a ruler, or another entity (not necessarily present) to attest the truth of a statement or sincerity of one's desire to fulfill a contract or promise.

A gap or opening

A statement or promise which is strengthened (affirmed) by such a pledge.

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

A light, irreverent or insulting appeal to a deity or other entity.

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

A curse, a curse word.

An opportunity or chance, especially one leading to professional success

(archaic) To pledge.

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

A solemn affirmation or declaration, made with a reverent appeal to God for the truth of what is affirmed.

A bud or shoot sprouting from a stem.

A solemn affirmation, connected with a sacred object, or one regarded as sacred, as the temple, the altar, the blood of Abel, the Bible, the Koran, etc.

Former term for breaking cart

An appeal (in verification of a statement made) to a superior sanction, in such a form as exposes the party making the appeal to an indictment for perjury if the statement be false.

Another term for brake

A careless and blasphemous use of the name of the divine Being, or anything divine or sacred, by way of appeal or as a profane exclamation or ejaculation; an expression of profane swearing.

To cause to separate into pieces suddenly or violently; smash.

Profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger;

To divide into pieces, as by bending or cutting

A commitment to tell the truth (especially in a court of law); to lie under oath is to become subject to prosecution for perjury

To separate into components or parts

A solemn promise, usually invoking a divine witness, regarding your future acts or behavior;

To snap off or detach

To cause to undergo a fracture of (a bone, for example)

To experience a fracture in (a bone, for example)

To crack without separating into pieces

To destroy the completeness of (a group of related items)

To exchange for smaller monetary units

To vary or disrupt the uniformity or continuity of

(Electricity) To render (a circuit) inoperative by disruption; open.

To open (a shotgun or similar firearm) at the breech, as for loading or cleaning.

To force or make a way through; puncture or penetrate

To part or pierce the surface of

To produce (a sweat) copiously on the skin, as from exercise.

To force one's way out of; escape from

To make or bring about by cutting or forcing

To find an opening or flaw in

To find the solution or key to; uncover the basic elements and arrangement of

To make known, as news

To surpass or outdo

To overcome or put an end to, especially by force or strong opposition

(Sports) To win a game on (an opponent's service), as in tennis.

To lessen the force or effect of

To render useless or inoperative

To weaken or destroy, as in spirit or health; overwhelm with adversity

To cause the ruin or failure of (an enterprise, for example)

To reduce in rank; demote.

To cause to be without money or to go into bankruptcy.

To fail to fulfill; cancel

To fail to conform to; violate

(Law) To cause (a will) to be invalidated because of inconsistency with state inheritance laws or as a result of other legal insufficiency.

To give up (a habit).

To cause to give up a habit

To train to obey; tame

To become separated into pieces or fragments.

To become cracked or split.

To become fractured

To become unusable or inoperative

To give way; collapse

To burst

To intrude

To filter in or penetrate

To scatter or disperse; part

(Games) To make the opening shot that scatters the grouped balls in billiards or pool.

(Sports) To separate from a clinch in boxing.

(Sports) To win a game on the opponent's service, as in tennis

To move away or escape suddenly

To come forth or begin from a state of latency; come into being or emerge

To emerge above the surface of water.

To become known or noticed

To change direction or move suddenly

(Baseball) To curve near or over the plate

To change suddenly from one tone quality or musical register to another

(Linguistics) To undergo breaking.

To change to a gait different from the one set. Used of a horse.

To interrupt or cease an activity

To discontinue an association, an agreement, or a relationship

To diminish or discontinue abruptly

To diminish in or lose physical or spiritual strength; weaken or succumb

To decrease sharply in value or quantity

To come to an end

To collapse or crash into surf or spray

(Informal) To take place or happen; proceed

To engage in breaking; break dance.

The act or an occurrence of breaking.

The result of breaking, as a crack, separation, or opening

The beginning or emergence of something

A sudden movement; a dash

An escape

An interruption or a disruption in continuity or regularity

A pause or interval, as from work

A sudden or marked change

A violation

An often sudden piece of luck, especially good luck

An allowance or indulgence; accommodating treatment

A favorable price or reduction

A severing of ties

(Informal) A faux pas.

A sudden decline in prices.

A caesura.

The space between two paragraphs.

A series of three dots ( ... ) used to indicate an omission in a text.

The place where a word is or should be divided at the end of a line.

(Electricity) Interruption of a flow of current.

(Geology) A marked change in topography such as a fault or deep valley.

(Nautical) The point of discontinuity between two levels on the deck of a ship.

The point at which one register or tonal quality changes to another.

The change itself.

An improvised instrumental solo played in jazz and other popular music while the other musicians stop or play softly.

A change in a horse's gait to one different from that set by the rider.

(Sports) The swerving of a ball from a straight path of flight, as in baseball or cricket.

(Sports) The beginning of a race.

A fast break.

The separation after a clinch in boxing.

(Games) The opening shot that scatters the grouped balls in billiards or pool.

(Games) A run or unbroken series of successful shots, as in billiards or croquet.

Sports & Games Failure to score a strike or a spare in a given bowling frame.

(Sports) A service break.

Variant of brake6.

Break dancing.

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

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

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

(transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of.

To turn an animal into a beast of burden.

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

(transitive) To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate.

To end the run of (a play).

(transitive) To ruin financially.

To fail in business; to go broke, to become bankrupt.

Of prices on the stock exchange: to fall suddenly.

(transitive) To violate; to fail to adhere to.

To go down, in terms of temperature, indicating that the most dangerous part of the illness has passed.

To end.

To begin or end.

To arrive.

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.

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

To cause (some feature of a program or piece of software) to stop functioning properly; to cause a regression.

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

(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.

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

To collapse into surf, after arriving in shallow water.

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

(intransitive) To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily; to go on break.

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

To disclose or make known an item of news, a band, etc.

To become audible suddenly.

(transitive) To change a steady state abruptly.

To (attempt to) disengage and flee to; to make a run for.

To suddenly become.

To become deeper at puberty.

To alter in type due to emotion or strain: in men, generally to go up, in women, sometimes to go down; to crack.

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

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

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

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

To demote; to reduce the military rank of.

(transitive) To end (a connection); to disconnect.

To demulsify.

To counter-attack.

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

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

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

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

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

To fall out; to terminate friendship.

To terminate the execution of a program before normal completion.

To suspend the execution of a program during debugging so that the state of the program can be investigated.

(computing) To cause, or allow the occurrence of, a line break.

To B-boy; to breakdance.

An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.

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

A rest or pause, usually from work.

A time for students to talk or play between lessons.

A scheduled interval of days or weeks between periods of school instruction; a holiday.

A short holiday.

A temporary split with a romantic partner.

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

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

(finance) A sudden fall in prices on the stock exchange.

The beginning (of the morning).

An act of escaping.

The separation between lines, paragraphs or pages of a written text.

(computing) A keystroke or other signal that causes a program to terminate or suspend execution.

(programming) breakpoint

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

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

The first shot in a game of billiards.

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

(soccer) The counter-attack.

(golf) The curve imparted to the ball's motion on the green due to slope or grass texture.

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

(horse racing) The start of a horse race.

(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.

(equitation) A sharp bit or snaffle.

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

(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.

(music) The transition area between a singer's vocal registers; the passaggio.

An area along a river that features steep banks, bluffs, or gorges (e.g., Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, US).

An error.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

To shatter to pieces; to reduce to fragments.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

To burst forth violently, as a storm.

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

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

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

To fall in business; to become bankrupt.

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

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.

To fall out; to terminate friendship.

An opening made by fracture or disruption.

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

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

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

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

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

See Commutator.

Some abrupt occurrence that interrupts;

An unexpected piece of good luck;

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

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

A pause from doing something (as work);

The act of breaking something;

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

Breaking of hard tissue such as bone;

The occurrence of breaking;

The opening shot that scatters the balls in billiards or pool

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

An act of delaying or interrupting the continuity;

A sudden dash;

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

An escape from jail;

Terminate;

Become separated into pieces or fragments;

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

Render inoperable or ineffective;

Ruin completely;

Act in disregard of laws and rules;

Move away or escape suddenly;

Scatter or part;

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

Prevent completion;

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

Make submissive, obedient, or useful;

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

Surpass in excellence;

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

Come into being;

Stop operating or functioning;

Interrupt a continued activity;

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

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

Lessen in force or effect;

Be broken in;

Come to an end;

Vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity;

Cause to give up a habit;

Give up;

Come forth or begin from a state of latency;

Happen or take place;

Cause the failure or ruin of;

Invalidate by judicial action;

Discontinue an association or relation; go different ways;

Assign to a lower position; reduce in rank;

Reduce to bankruptcy;

Change directions suddenly

Emerge from the surface of a body of water;

Break down, literally or metaphorically;

Do a break dance;

Exchange for smaller units of money;

Destroy the completeness of a set of related items;

Make the opening shot that scatters the balls

Separate from a clinch, in boxing;

Go to pieces;

Break a piece from a whole;

Become punctured or penetrated;

Pierce or penetrate;

Be released or become known; of news;

Cease an action temporarily;

Interrupt the flow of current in;

Undergo breaking;

Find a flaw in;

Find the solution or key to;

Change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another;

Happen;

Become fractured; break or crack on the surface only;

Of the male voice in puberty;

Fall sharply;

Fracture a bone of;

Diminish or discontinue abruptly;

Weaken or destroy in spirit or body;