Overview of noun breaking

The noun breaking has 1 sense

• breakage, break, breaking -- (the act of breaking something; "the breakage was unavoidable")

Overview of verb break

The verb break has 59 senses

• interrupt, break -- (terminate; "She interrupted her pregnancy"; "break a lucky streak"; "break the cycle of poverty")


• break, separate, split up, fall apart, come apart -- (become separated into pieces or fragments; "The figurine broke"; "The freshly baked loaf fell apart")


• break -- (render inoperable or ineffective; "You broke the alarm clock when you took it apart!")


• break, bust -- (ruin completely; "He busted my radio!")


• break -- (destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments; "He broke the glass plate"; "She broke the match")


• transgress, offend, infract, violate, go against, breach, break -- (act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises; "offend all laws of humanity"; "violate the basic laws or human civilization"; "break a law"; "break a promise")


• break, break out, break away -- (move away or escape suddenly; "The horses broke from the stable"; "Three inmates broke jail"; "Nobody can break out--this prison is high security")


• break -- (scatter or part; "The clouds broke after the heavy downpour")


• break, burst, erupt -- (force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up; "break into tears"; "erupt in anger")


• break, break off, discontinue, stop -- (prevent completion; "stop the project"; "break off the negotiations")


• break in, break -- (enter someone's (virtual or real) 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!"; "who broke into my account last night?")


• break in, break -- (make submissive, obedient, or useful; "The horse was tough to break"; "I broke in the new intern")


• violate, go against, break -- (fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns; "This sentence violates the rules of syntax")


• better, break -- (surpass in excellence; "She bettered her own record"; "break a record")


• unwrap, disclose, let on, bring out, reveal, discover, expose, divulge, break, give away, let out -- (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"; "unwrap the evidence in the murder case")


• break -- (come into being; "light broke over the horizon"; "Voices broke in the air")


• fail, go bad, give way, die, give out, conk out, go, break, break down -- (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")


• break, break away -- (interrupt a continued activity; "She had broken with the traditional patterns")


• break -- (make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing; "The ranks broke")


• break -- (curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves; "The surf broke")


• dampen, damp, soften, weaken, break -- (lessen in force or effect; "soften a shock"; "break a fall")


• break -- (be broken in; "If the new teacher won't break, we'll add some stress")


• break -- (come to an end; "The heat wave finally broke yesterday")


• break -- (vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity; "The flat plain was broken by tall mesas")


• break -- (cause to give up a habit; "She finally broke herself of smoking cigarettes")


• break -- (give up; "break cigarette smoking")


• break -- (come forth or begin from a state of latency; "The first winter storm broke over New York")


• break -- (happen or take place; "Things have been breaking pretty well for us in the past few months")


• break -- (cause the failure or ruin of; "His peccadilloes finally broke his marriage"; "This play will either make or break the playwright")


• break -- (invalidate by judicial action; "The will was broken")


• separate, part, split up, split, break, break up -- (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")


• demote, bump, relegate, break, kick downstairs -- (assign to a lower position; reduce in rank; "She was demoted because she always speaks up"; "He was broken down to Sergeant")


• bankrupt, ruin, break, smash -- (reduce to bankruptcy; "My daughter's fancy wedding is going to break me!"; "The slump in the financial markets smashed him")


• break -- (change directions suddenly)


• break -- (emerge from the surface of a body of water; "The whales broke")


• collapse, fall in, cave in, give, give way, break, founder -- (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")


• break dance, break-dance, break -- (do a break dance; "Kids were break-dancing at the street corner")


• break -- (exchange for smaller units of money; "I had to break a $100 bill just to buy the candy")


• break, break up -- (destroy the completeness of a set of related items; "The book dealer would not break the set")


• break -- (make the opening shot that scatters the balls)


• break -- (separate from a clinch, in boxing; "The referee broke the boxers")


• break, wear, wear out, bust, fall apart -- (go to pieces; "The lawn mower finally broke"; "The gears wore out"; "The old chair finally fell apart completely")


• break, break off, snap off -- (break a piece from a whole; "break a branch from a tree")


• break -- (become punctured or penetrated; "The skin broke")


• break -- (pierce or penetrate; "The blade broke her skin")


• break, get out, get around -- (be released or become known; of news; "News of her death broke in the morning")


• pause, intermit, break -- (cease an action temporarily; "We pause for station identification"; "let's break for lunch")


• break -- (interrupt the flow of current in; "break a circuit")


• break