Break (meanings)

The word break exists as a noun and a verb. The general meaning of both of these and their variant meanings in current English is usually "To sever into distinct parts by sudden application of force, to part by violence" (OED, 2020).

• A drinker may break a glass; a child may break a toy; a fish may break an angler's line (and escape with the fish-hook in its mouth);

• In some uses,'to break' may mean, not physical separation into parts, 'smashing', disbanding

• Intransitively, a rope may break, or, in a fall, an arm may break (in a fight, the transitive 'Jack broke Bob's nose' may be more truthful, as indeed may be 'I broke the window', rather than 'the window broke));

• Be careful not to confuse break with its homophone brake. Over history, the spellings brake and break have both been used for all meanings. For example, of two meanings recorded in OED (1888) for the derived noun breakage , the first, "The action of a brake in stopping a train", is listed under the headword brakeage | breakage, n.; the second - current - meaning, "the action or fact of breaking" (only listed as breakage), is not recorded before 1813.
  • Users of AWE such as students of literature or history, who may come across some of the other, less current, meanings of these words may like to consult the following on some of the less familiar meanings. For a comprehensive view of all of them, see OED, or another good historical dictionary.

• • Special uses of the verb 'to break' include:
    • 'to break bread is 'to share a loaf' (particularly in Christianity referring to the Last Supper, where Jesus "took bread, and blessed it, and brake [an archaic past form of 'break' (now regularly broke] it , and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body" [Matthew 26: 26, AV]); break a note (or earlier a coin) is 'to obtain smaller units', 'to change it' for smaller units; to break a bottle [usually of wine] is 'to open it', particularly in company as the start of a drinking session;
    • When a boy's voice breaks, he speaks with the tone of a full-grown man, rather than the youthful high pitch of a boy. (Musicians prefer to speak of a voice changing, from treble or alto to tenor or bass.)
    • A bowler in cricket may make the ball he bowls break by changing its direction when it strikes the ground. (It may then break the batsman's wicket.)