break

• The femur has a clean break and so should heal easily.

Synonyms: split

• The sun came out in a break in the clouds.
• He waited minutes for a break in the traffic to cross the highway.

Synonyms: breach gap space break interlapse interspace interstice interstitium opening separation hole

• 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. - 1958 June 5, “New...
• But the young activists of Move Forward outmanoeuvred the older party, and beat many of its candidates, with an imaginative, social media-based campaign offering voters a complete break with the past, and a different...

• Let’s take a five-minute break.

Synonyms: shift break time-out break breather cessation demurral gap caesura hiatus halt halting interregnum interruption lapse moratorium pause recess respite resting stoppage stopping suspension

1. (UK, education) A time for students to talk or play between lessons.

   • It was playtime - or rather ‘break’ - and I had brazenly joined in a game of football on the school parade ground. - 1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 35:

   Synonyms: shift break time-out break breather cessation demurral gap caesura hiatus halt halting interregnum interruption lapse moratorium pause recess respite resting stoppage stopping suspension playtime

2. A scheduled interval of days or weeks between periods of school instruction; a holiday.

   • winter break, spring break

   Synonyms: shift break time-out break breather cessation demurral gap caesura hiatus halt halting interregnum interruption lapse moratorium pause recess respite resting stoppage stopping suspension

• a weekend break on the Isle of Wight

Synonyms: day off time off annual leave break getaway holiday leave leave of absence pause recess time away vac vacation vaca vacay

• I think we need a break.

• But they marginally improved after the break as Didier Drogba hit the post. - 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC:

• big break
• lucky break, bad break
• them's the breaks

• Following the invasion of France by the Germans in May of 1940, the securities markets experienced a break in prices. - 1947, Reports of the Tax Court of the United States, volume 8, page 459:

• daybreak
• at the break of day

Synonyms: crack of dawn ass crack of dawn break break of dawn break of day butt crack of dawn cockcrow dawn daybreak daylight dayspring first light lauds solrise sparrow-fart sun sunlight sunrise sunrising sunup

• to make a break for it; to make a break for the door
• It was a clean break.
• prison break

• No matter how much text you add above the break, the text after the break will always appear at the top of a new page. - 2001, Nan Barber, David Reynolds, Office 2001 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual, page 138:

• The smooth criminal on beat breaks / Never put me in your box if your shit eats tapes - 1994, “N.Y. State of Mind”, in Illmatic, performed by Nas:

• If the vase falls to the floor, it might break.
• In order to tend to the accident victim, he will break the window of the car.
• First, marinate the tofu. In a bowl, whisk the kecap manis, chilli sauce, and sesame oil together. Cut the tofu into strips about 1cm thick, mix gently (so it doesn't break) with the marinade and leave in the fridge for...

1. (transitive, intransitive) To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain.

   • His ribs broke under the weight of the rocks piled on his chest.
   • He slipped on the ice and broke his leg.

• Can you break a hundred-dollar bill for me?
• The wholesaler broke the container loads into palettes and boxes for local retailers.

• Her child’s death broke Angela.
• Interrogators have used many forms of torture to break prisoners of war.
• The interrogator hoped to break her to get her testimony against her accomplices.

1. To turn an animal into a beast of burden.

   • Colonel: See, gentlemen? Any horse could be broken. - 2002, John Fusco, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron:
   • You have to break an elephant before you can use it as an animal of burden.

• My heart is breaking.
• Two days later they transferred her to another prison to separate us. I broke. My life was gone, so I thought. - 1986 February 1, Kathy Jo Elliott, “Solid As A Rock”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 28, page 5:

• I’ve got to break this habit I have of biting my nails.
• to break silence; to break one's sleep; to break one’s journey
• I had won four games in a row, but now you've broken my streak of luck.

1. (transitive, theater) To end the run of (a play).

   • In July Alexander broke the run and went on tour, as was his custom. He believed in keeping in touch with provincial audiences and how wise he was! - 1958, Walter Macqueen-Pope, St. James's: Theatre of Distinction, page...
   • After Camberwell he broke the play's season and brought it back in the autumn with a few revisions and a noticeably strengthened cast but without any special success. - 1986, Kurt Gänzl, The British Musical Theatre:...

• The recession broke some small businesses.
• With arts like these rich Matho, when he speaks, / Attracts all fees, and little lawyers breaks. - 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Seventh Satyr”, in...

• He that puts all upon adventures doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty. - 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Riches”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:
• ‘I knew he was in some such low way—He broke did not he?’ - 1791-92, Jane Austen, ‘A Collection of Letters’, Juvenilia

• With a few exceptions, stock prices tend to follow the overall market averages. When you have a market decline, therefore, many stocks share the same overall chart pattern. Prices break and go sideways for a period of...

• When you go to Vancouver, promise me you won't break the law.
• He broke his vows by cheating on his wife.
• to break one’s word

• Susan's fever broke at about 3 AM, and the doctor said the worst was over.

1. (intransitive, of a fever) To go down, in terms of temperature, indicating that the most dangerous part of the illness has passed.

2. (transitive) To successfully treat or resist (a fever).

   • The treatment broke my fever.
   • Carl broke his fever this morning.

• The forecast says the hot weather will break by midweek.

• We ran to find shelter before the storm broke.
• Around midday the storm broke, and the afternoon was calm and sunny.

• Let the poppers pop and the breakers break / We're cool, cool cats, it's like that - 1985, “King of Rock”, performed by Run-DMC:

• Breaking heavily, now on a 1 in 39 gradient, the train makes as if to cross the Tamar at once, only to swing sharply to the right, […]. - 1951 July, R. E. G. Read, “From Bere Alston to Callington”, in Railway Magazine,...