break

break is one of the 1000 most common headwords.

break

[change] Verb

Plain form
break

Third person singular
breaks

Simple past
broke

Past participle
broken

Present participle
breaking

(transitive & intransitive) If you break something, you take off a piece or pieces in a way that cannot easily be put back together, usually by force.
(transitive & intransitive) If something such as a machine breaks, it stops working because something is wrong.
(transitive) If you break a law, rule, promise, etc. you do something that you should not do.
(transitive) If you break a surface, limit, record, etc., you go beyond it.
(intransitive) If you break free or out of something, you could not leave but now you leave.

The police are looking for some prisoners who broke out of the jail.
(intransitive) If you break, you stop for a short time to rest.

We break for coffee at 10:00 every morning.
(intransitive) If day or morning breaks, it begins.

The day was breaking as they packed up the tent.
(transitive) If you break something, you stop it suddenly.

The sound of the door closing broke the silence.

The rain finally broke on Monday evening.
(intransitive) If news breaks, it becomes known.
(intransitive) If your voice breaks, it changes because you are almost crying.

"I wanted to say goodbye before he died", she said, her voice breaking.
(transitive) If you break some money, you change a note into coins.

I don't want to break a twenty just to buy matches.

Singular
break

A break is when people stop working for a short time.

We get a 15-minute break in the middle of the morning.

I'll phone you during my lunch break.
A break is a chance to make things go right.

That job opening up just when she finished school was a lucky break for her.

Give me a break.