break

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“
Many local travel agencies say the hot vacation over the break is a cruise to Mexico.

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Definitions (413)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (158)

  1. transitive verb To cause to separate into pieces suddenly or violently; smash.
  2. transitive verb To divide into pieces, as by bending or cutting: break crackers for a baby.
  3. transitive verb To separate into components or parts: broke the work into discrete tasks.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (177)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (45)

  • “Get the hell out of here or the next thing I'm gonna break is your head You crazy bitch!” he shouts. —  Asimov's Science Fiction, Jan. 2002
  • The final game before the break was a 7-0 whitewash of in-state foe St. Michael's. —  TimesArgus.com: Sports
  • We have been playing cricket for a while and this break is a welcome one. —  Google News India - Top Stories
  • Moreover, tickets for the days immediately preceding the break are around normal levels. —  The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
  • Arn The Nuggets have been putting on a brave face about Melo's injury, but the break is the big bone that extends from his middle finger. —  RockyMountainNews.com
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

move ·  cut ·  change ·  burst ·  go ·  run ·  fall ·  today ·  shoot ·  turn ·  rise ·  pass

Used in the same contextWord Family

break:   breaks ·  broke ·  breaking ·  broken
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English breken, from Old English brecan; see bhreg- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English and dial. also breck; from Middle English breken (preterit brak, brek, brake, plural braken, breken, past participle broken, broke), from Anglo-Saxon brecan (preterit brœc, plural brǣcon, past participle brocen) = Old Saxon brekan = OFries. breka = Dutch breken = Middle Low German breken, Low German breken, brœken = Old High German brehhan, Middle High German brechen, German brechen = Gothic (Moesogothic) brikan, break (cf. Icelandic brāka, bruise, braka, creak, Swedish braka, crack, = Danish brœkke, break — weak verbs), = Latin frangere (perfect frēgi); perhaps = Greek ῤηγν/υναι, break; cf. Sanskrit √ bhanj) for *bhranj?), break. Hence (from Anglo-Saxon etc.) breach, break, n., breck, breek, brick, brake, brake, brake, brock, perhaps brook, etc.; (through Roman) bray, breccia, bricole, etc.; and (from L.) fraction, fracture, fragile, frail, fragment, etc.
  2. In most senses of modern origin from the verb break, the older noun being breach with its variants: see breach. In some senses merely a different spelling of the related brake, q. v.
 

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/breɪk/
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