break

Forms

1.To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.
- He slipped on the ice and broke his leg.
- If the vase falls to the floor, it might break.
- His ribs broke under the weight of the rocks piled on his chest.
2.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.To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of.
- Colonel: See, gentlemen? Any horse could be broken.
- Interrogators have used many forms of torture to break prisoners of war.
- You have to break an elephant before you can use it as an animal of burden.
4.To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief.
- Two days later they transferred her to another prison to separate us. I broke. My life was gone, so I thought.

1.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.
2.An interruption of continuity; departure from or rupture with.
- 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.
3.A rest or pause, usually from work.
- It was playtime - or rather ‘break’ - and I had brazenly joined in a game of football on the school parade ground.
- Let’s take a five-minute break.
4.An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.
- The femur has a clean break and so should heal easily.

Very common· #450

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *bʰreg-der.

Proto-Germanic *brekaną

Proto-West Germanic *brekan

Old English brecan

Middle English breken

English break