Background for break

break

/bɹeɪk/

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noun

An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.

Examples :

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

action event essential

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noun

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

Examples :

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

gap space part essential

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noun

A rest or pause, usually from work.

Examples :

"Let’s take a five-minute break."

time work essential

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noun

A time for students to talk or play.

Examples :

"During the morning break, the students chatted excitedly about their weekend plans. "

time education essential

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noun

A short holiday.

Examples :

"a weekend break on the Isle of Wight"

holiday time essential

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noun

A temporary split with a romantic partner.

Examples :

"I think we need a break."

family human mind emotion society essential

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noun

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

Examples :

"The play had a 15-minute break between acts. "

entertainment time stage essential

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noun

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

Examples :

"big break"

attitude condition situation essential

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noun

The beginning (of the morning).

Examples :

"at the break of day"

time period essential

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noun

An act of escaping.

Examples :

"It was a clean break."

action event essential

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noun

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

Examples :

"The poem had wide breaks between stanzas, allowing the reader to pause and reflect. "

writing language grammar essential

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noun

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

Examples :

"The break key on the computer caused the presentation program to stop. "

computing technology signal essential

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noun

A point or condition in a program at which operation may be suspended during debugging so that the state of the program at that point can be investigated. A breakpoint.

Examples :

"The programmer set a breakpoint in the code to check for errors in the program. "

computing technology technical condition process essential

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noun

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

Examples :

"The long period of rainy weather finally broke, and the sun came out. "

weather essential

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noun verb

:

Examples :

"The break between classes allowed students to get a drink of water. "

time gap period essential

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noun

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

Examples :

"The wealthy family owned a beautiful break, which they used for outings to the park. "

vehicle architecture essential

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noun

(equitation) A sharp bit or snaffle.

Examples :

"The horse trainer used a special break to encourage the young horse to respond better to the reins. "

animal utensil sport vehicle essential

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noun

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

Examples :

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

music entertainment essential

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noun

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.

Examples :

"Crossing the break smoothly is one of the first lessons the young clarinettist needs to master."

music technical essential

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noun

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

Examples :

"The hikers explored the rugged river breaks, carefully navigating the steep slopes. "

geography environment nature place area essential

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verb

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

Examples :

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

action physics essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"Can you break a hundred-dollar bill for me?"

business finance essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"The constant criticism from her classmates broke her spirit, making her lose interest in school. "

mind character person attitude emotion essential

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verb

To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief.

Examples :

"My heart is breaking."

emotion suffering mind essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"The loud noise from the construction site broke the peaceful morning. "

action process essential

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verb

To ruin financially.

Examples :

"The recession broke some small businesses."

business finance essential

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verb

To violate, to not adhere to.

Examples :

"He broke his vows by cheating on his wife."

law moral action essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"My daughter's fever broke last night, so she felt much better this morning. "

medicine disease physiology body essential

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verb

(of a spell of settled weather) To end.

Examples :

"The forecast says the hot weather will break by midweek."

weather time essential

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verb

(of a storm) To begin; to end.

Examples :

"Around midday the storm broke, and the afternoon was calm and sunny."

weather time essential

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verb

(of morning, dawn, day etc.) To arrive.

Examples :

"Morning has broken."

time nature essential

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verb

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.

Examples :

"Changing the rules to let white have three extra queens would break chess."

game computing technology internet essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"Did you two break the trolley by racing with it?"

function machine technology essential

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verb

To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar.

Examples :

"break a seal"

action physics essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"The cavalry were not able to break the British squares."

action structure condition essential

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verb

(of a wave of water) To collapse into surf, after arriving in shallow water.

Examples :

"The waves broke with a roar as they hit the shallows. "

nature ocean geography nautical weather essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"The sun broke through the clouds, lighting up the schoolyard. "

action appearance nature essential

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verb

To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily.

Examples :

"The students were asked to break from their math lesson to eat lunch. "

work job action essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"He survived the jump out the window because the bushes below broke his fall."

action physics essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"The teacher broke the news that the school picnic was canceled. "

media communication essential

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verb

(of a sound) To become audible suddenly.

Examples :

"The quiet classroom suddenly broke into a loud cheer when the teacher announced the surprise party. "

sound language communication essential

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verb

To change a steady state abruptly.

Examples :

"His coughing broke the silence."

action process essential

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verb

To suddenly become.

Examples :

"The arrest was standard, when suddenly the suspect broke ugly."

action process essential

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verb

Of a male voice, to become deeper at puberty.

Examples :

"My brother's voice broke during puberty. "

physiology age body sex essential

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verb

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.

Examples :

"His voice breaks when he gets emotional."

sound physiology emotion linguistics essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"The runner broke the school record in the 100-meter dash. "

achievement sport number essential

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:

Examples :

"The teacher will break the lesson into smaller parts to make it easier to understand. "

action condition essential

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verb

(most often in the passive tense) To demote, to reduce the military rank of.

Examples :

"The soldier was broken in rank for disobeying orders. "

military government essential

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verb

To end (a connection), to disconnect.

Examples :

"My sister and I broke our friendship after a big argument. "

action technical device machine essential

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verb

(of an emulsion) To demulsify.

Examples :

"The oil and water mixture in the science experiment broke, separating into distinct layers. "

chemistry science technical process essential

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verb

To counter-attack

Examples :

"The soccer team decided to break the opponent's attack by quickly passing the ball to their star player. "

military war action essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"The teacher broke the news that the class would have a surprise party for the retiring principal. "

communication language essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"After a long illness, Sarah broke and needed several weeks to recover. "

medicine physiology body essential

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verb

To fail in business; to become bankrupt.

Examples :

"The small bakery had to break because it couldn't afford the rising costs of ingredients. "

business finance economy essential

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verb

To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of.

Examples :

"to break flax"

action condition material essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"The school principal broke the student's suspension status. "

government military job essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"to break into a run or gallop"

action way sport essential

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verb

To fall out; to terminate friendship.

Examples :

"My best friend and I broke up after a big argument. "

family human person essential

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verb

To terminate the execution of a program before normal completion.

Examples :

"The computer program crashed and broke mid-calculation. "

computing technology electronics essential

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verb

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

Examples :

"The programmer broke the program to examine why the calculation was wrong. "

computing technology essential

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noun

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

Examples :

"The DJ dropped a powerful break during the school dance, getting everyone on the floor. "

music dance entertainment essential