Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A sudden increase.
  • noun A sudden eruption; an outburst.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A breaking out; an outburst; a sudden and violent manifestation: as, an outbreak of fever; an outbreak of popular indignation.
  • noun A rupture of the peace; a public disturbance or riot.
  • To break or burst forth.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A bursting forth; eruption; insurrection; mutiny; revolt.
  • noun A sudden beginning of a violent event.
  • noun A sudden occurrence or manifestation; -- usually of disease or emotion, in one person or a group.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An eruption, sudden appearance
  • noun A sudden increase.
  • noun An outburst or sudden eruption, especially of violence and mischief.
  • noun An uproar, riot
  • noun uncountable A geological layer that breaks out
  • verb intransitive To burst out
  • verb intransitive To break forth

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a sudden violent spontaneous occurrence (usually of some undesirable condition)

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English *utbreken, from Old English ūtābrecan ("to break out"), equivalent to out- +‎ break. Cognate with Dutch uitbreken ("to break out, burst out"), German ausbrechen ("to break out, erupt").

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