What is break?

More definitions of "break":

• (noun): Any frame in which a bowler fails to make a strike or spare.
  Example: "The break in the eighth frame cost him the match"
  Synonyms: open frame

• (verb): Ruin completely.
  Synonyms: bust

• (verb): Assign to a lower position; reduce in rank.
  Synonyms: demote, bump, relegate, kick downstairs

• (noun): An escape from jail.
  Synonyms: breakout, jailbreak, gaolbreak, prisonbreak, prison-breaking

• (verb): Do a break dance.
  Example: "Kids were break-dancing at the street corner"
  Synonyms: break dance, break-dance

• (verb): Make the opening shot that scatters the balls.

• (verb): Curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves.
  Example: "The surf broke"

• (verb): Exchange for smaller units of money.
  Example: "I had to break a $100 bill just to buy the candy"

• (verb): Act in disregard of laws and rules.
  Example: "Break a law"
  Synonyms: transgress, offend, infract, violate, go against, breach

• (verb): Become fractured; break or crack on the surface only.
  Synonyms: crack, check

• (verb): Vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity.
  Example: "The flat plain was broken by tall mesas"

• (verb): Give up.
  Example: "Break cigarette smoking"

• (verb): Interrupt the flow of current in.
  Example: "Break a circuit"

• (noun): Some abrupt occurrence that interrupts.
  Example: "There was a break in the action when a player was hurt"
  Synonyms: interruption

• (noun): A sudden dash.
  Example: "He made a break for the open door"

• (verb): Change directions suddenly.

• (verb): Happen or take place.
  Example: "Things have been breaking pretty well for us in the past few months"

• (verb): Go to pieces.
  Synonyms: wear, wear out, bust, fall apart

• (verb): Cease an action temporarily.
  Example: "Let's break for lunch"
  Synonyms: pause, intermit

• (verb): Enter someone's property in an unauthorized manner, usually with the intent to steal or commit a violent act.
  Synonyms: break in

• (verb): Happen.
  Synonyms: recrudesce, develop

• (verb): Reduce to bankruptcy.
  Example: "My daughter's fancy wedding is going to break me!"
  Synonyms: bankrupt, ruin, smash

• (noun): A pause from doing something (as work).
  Example: "We took a 10-minute break"
  Synonyms: respite, recess, time out

• (verb): Stop operating or functioning.
  Synonyms: fail, go bad, give way, die, give out, conk out, go, break down

• (verb): Destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments.
  Example: "He broke the glass plate"; "She broke the match"

• (verb): Terminate.
  Example: "Break a lucky streak"; "break the cycle of poverty"
  Synonyms: interrupt

• (verb): Be released or become known; of news.
  Synonyms: get out, get around

• (verb): Diminish or discontinue abruptly.
  Example: "The patient's fever broke last night"

• (verb): Render inoperable or ineffective.
  Example: "You broke the alarm clock when you took it apart!"

• (verb): Come into being.
  Example: "Light broke over the horizon"; "Voices broke in the air"

• (noun): The opening shot that scatters the balls in billiards or pool.

• (verb): Make submissive, obedient, or useful.
  Example: "The horse was tough to break"
  Synonyms: break in

• (verb): Come to an end.
  Example: "The heat wave finally broke yesterday"

• (noun): (geology) a crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other.
  Synonyms: fault, geological fault, shift, fracture

• (verb): Become punctured or penetrated.
  Example: "The skin broke"

• (noun): An act of delaying or interrupting the continuity.
  Synonyms: interruption, disruption, gap

• (verb): Prevent completion.
  Example: "Break off the negociations"
  Synonyms: break off, discontinue, stop

• (verb): Scatter or part.
  Example: "The clouds broke after the heavy downpour"

• (verb): Change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another.
  Example: "Her voice broke to a whisper when she started to talk about her children"

• (verb): Make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing.
  Example: "The ranks broke"

• (noun): An unexpected piece of good luck.
  Example: "He finally got his big break"
  Synonyms: good luck, happy chance

• (verb): Make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret.
  Synonyms: disclose, let on, bring out, reveal, discover, expose, divulge, impart, give away, let out

• (noun): Breaking of hard tissue such as bone.
  Example: "The break seems to have been caused by a fall"
  Synonyms: fracture

• (verb): Separate from a clinch, in boxing.
  Example: "The referee broke the boxers"

• (verb): Discontinue an association or relation; go different ways.
  Synonyms: separate, part, split up, split, break up

• (verb): Come forth or begin from a state of latency.
  Example: "The first winter storm broke over New York"

• (verb): Find the solution or key to.
  Example: "Break the code"

• (noun): A personal or social separation (as between opposing factions).
  Example: "They hoped to avoid a break in relations"
  Synonyms: rupture, breach, severance, rift, falling out

• (noun): The act of breaking something.
  Synonyms: breakage, breaking

• (verb): Fall sharply.
  Example: "Stock prices broke"

• (verb): Move away or escape suddenly.
  Example: "Nobody can break out--this prison is high security"
  Synonyms: break out, break away

• (verb): Force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up.
  Example: "Break into tears"
  Synonyms: burst, erupt

• (verb): Break down, literally or metaphorically.
  Synonyms: collapse, fall in, cave in, give, give way, founder

• (verb): Surpass in excellence.
  Example: "Break a record"
  Synonyms: better

• (verb): Lessen in force or effect.
  Example: "Break a fall"
  Synonyms: dampen, damp, soften, weaken

• (verb): Be broken in.
  Example: "If the new teacher won't break, we'll add some stress"

• (verb): Interrupt a continued activity.
  Synonyms: break away

• (verb): Fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns.
  Synonyms: violate, go against

• (verb): Of the male voice in puberty.
  Example: "His voice is breaking--he should no longer sing in the choir"

• (noun): The occurrence of breaking.
  Example: "The break in the dam threatened the valley"

• (verb): Cause to give up a habit.
  Example: "She finally broke herself of smoking cigarettes"

• (verb): Emerge from the surface of a body of water.
  Example: "The whales broke"

• (verb): Destroy the completeness of a set of related items.
  Example: "The book dealer would not break the set"
  Synonyms: break up

• (verb): Fracture a bone of.
  Synonyms: fracture

• (verb): Pierce or penetrate.
  Example: "The blade broke her skin"

• (noun): (tennis) a score consisting of winning a game when your opponent was serving.
  Synonyms: break of serve

• (verb): Become separated into pieces or fragments.
  Synonyms: separate, split up, fall apart, come apart

• (verb): Weaken or destroy in spirit or body.
  Example: "His resistance was broken"; "a man broken by the terrible experience of near-death"

• (verb): Undergo breaking.
  Example: "The simple vowels broke in many Germanic languages"

• (verb): Invalidate by judicial action.
  Example: "The will was broken"

• (noun): A time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something.
  Synonyms: pause, intermission, interruption, suspension

• (verb): Cause the failure or ruin of.
  Example: "His peccadilloes finally broke his marriage"; "This play will either make or break the playwright"

• (verb): Break a piece from a whole.
  Example: "Break a branch from a tree"
  Synonyms: break off, snap off

Famous quotes containing the word break:

“Many people now believe that if fathers are more involved in raising children than they were, children and sons in particular will learn that men can be warm and supportive of others as well as be high achievers. Thus, fathers’ involvement may be beneficial not because it will help support traditional male roles, but because it will help break them down.”
—Joseph H. Pleck (20th century)

“Perhaps the happiest moment of my life was then, when I saw that our line didn’t break and that the enemy’s did.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)

“Here love’s damp muscle dries and dies,
Here break a kiss in no love’s quarry.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)