What is the meaning of broken?

verb

• Terminate.
  • usage: "She interrupted her pregnancy"; "break a lucky streak"; "break the cycle of poverty"
  • synonyms: interrupt, break
• Become separated into pieces or fragments.
  • usage: "The figurine broke"; "The freshly baked loaf fell apart"
  • synonyms: break, separate, split up, fall apart, come apart
• Render inoperable or ineffective.
  • usage: "You broke the alarm clock when you took it apart"
  • synonyms: break
• Ruin completely.
  • usage: "He busted my radio"
  • synonyms: break, bust
• Destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments.
  • usage: "He broke the glass plate"; "She broke the match"
  • synonyms: break
• Act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises.
  • usage: "offend all laws of humanity"; "violate the basic laws or human civilization"; "break a law"; "break a promise"
  • synonyms: transgress, offend, infract, violate, go against, breach, break
• Move away or escape suddenly.
  • usage: "The horses broke from the stable"; "Three inmates broke jail"; "Nobody can break out-this prison is high security"
  • synonyms: break, break out, break away
• Scatter or part.
  • usage: "The clouds broke after the heavy downpour"
  • synonyms: break
• Force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up.
  • usage: "break into tears"; "erupt in anger"
  • synonyms: break, burst, erupt
• Prevent completion.
  • usage: "stop the project"; "break off the negotiations"
  • synonyms: break, break off, discontinue, stop
• Enter someone's (virtual or real) property in an unauthorized manner, usually with the intent to steal or commit a violent act.
  • usage: "Someone broke in while I was on vacation"; "They broke into my car and stole my radio"; "who broke into my account last night"
  • synonyms: break in, break
• Make submissive, obedient, or useful.
  • usage: "The horse was tough to break"; "I broke in the new intern"
  • synonyms: break in, break
• Fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns.
  • usage: "This sentence violates the rules of syntax"
  • synonyms: violate, go against, break
• Surpass in excellence.
  • usage: "She bettered her own record"; "break a record"
  • synonyms: better, break
• Make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret.
  • usage: "The auction house would not disclose the price at which the van Gogh had sold"; "The actress won't reveal how old she is"; "bring out the truth"; "he broke the news to her"; "unwrap the evidence in the murder case"
  • synonyms: unwrap, disclose, let on, bring out, reveal, discover, expose, divulge, break, give away, let out
• Come into being.
  • usage: "light broke over the horizon"; "Voices broke in the air"
  • synonyms: break
• Stop operating or functioning.
  • usage: "The engine finally went"; "The car died on the road"; "The bus we travelled in broke down on the way to town"; "The coffee maker broke"; "The engine failed on the way to town"; "her eyesight went after the accident"
  • synonyms: fail, go bad, give way, die, give out, conk out, go, break, break down
• Interrupt a continued activity.
  • usage: "She had broken with the traditional patterns"
  • synonyms: break, break away
• Make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing.
  • usage: "The ranks broke"
  • synonyms: break
• Curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves.
  • usage: "The surf broke"
  • synonyms: break
• Lessen in force or effect.
  • usage: "soften a shock"; "break a fall"
  • synonyms: dampen, damp, soften, weaken, break
• Be broken in.
  • usage: "If the new teacher won't break, we'll add some stress"
  • synonyms: break
• Come to an end.
  • usage: "The heat wave finally broke yesterday"
  • synonyms: break
• Vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity.
  • usage: "The flat plain was broken by tall mesas"
  • synonyms: break
• Cause to give up a habit.
  • usage: "She finally broke herself of smoking cigarettes"
  • synonyms: break
• Give up.
  • usage: "break cigarette smoking"
  • synonyms: break
• Come forth or begin from a state of latency.
  • usage: "The first winter storm broke over New York"
  • synonyms: break
• Happen or take place.
  • usage: "Things have been breaking pretty well for us in the past few months"
  • synonyms: break
• Cause the failure or ruin of.
  • usage: "His peccadilloes finally broke his marriage"; "This play will either make or break the playwright"
  • synonyms: break
• Invalidate by judicial action.
  • usage: "The will was broken"
  • synonyms: break
• Discontinue an association or relation; go different ways.
  • usage: "The business partners broke over a tax question"; "The couple separated after 25 years of marriage"; "My friend and I split up"
  • synonyms: separate, part, split up, split, break, break up
• Assign to a lower position; reduce in rank.
  • usage: "She was demoted because she always speaks up"; "He was broken down to Sergeant"
  • synonyms: demote, bump, relegate, break, kick downstairs
• Reduce to bankruptcy.
  • usage: "My daughter's fancy wedding is going to break me"; "The slump in the financial markets smashed him"
  • synonyms: bankrupt, ruin, break, smash
• Change directions suddenly.
  • synonyms: break
• Emerge from the surface of a body of water.
  • usage: "The whales broke"
  • synonyms: break
• Break down, literally or metaphorically.
  • usage: "The wall collapsed"; "The business collapsed"; "The dam broke"; "The roof collapsed"; "The wall gave in"; "The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice"
  • synonyms: collapse, fall in, cave in, give, give way, break, founder
• Do a break dance.
  • usage: "Kids were break-dancing at the street corner"
  • synonyms: break dance, break-dance, break
• Exchange for smaller units of money.
  • usage: "I had to break a $100 bill just to buy the candy"
  • synonyms: break
• Destroy the completeness of a set of related items.
  • usage: "The book dealer would not break the set"
  • synonyms: break, break up
• Make the opening shot that scatters the balls.
  • synonyms: break
• Separate from a clinch, in boxing.
  • usage: "The referee broke the boxers"
  • synonyms: break
• Go to pieces.
  • usage: "The lawn mower finally broke"; "The gears wore out"; "The old chair finally fell apart completely"
  • synonyms: break, wear, wear out, bust, fall apart
• Break a piece from a whole.
  • usage: "break a branch from a tree"
  • synonyms: break, break off, snap off
• Become punctured or penetrated.
  • usage: "The skin broke"
  • synonyms: break
• Pierce or penetrate.
  • usage: "The blade broke her skin"
  • synonyms: break
• Be released or become known; of news.
  • usage: "News of her death broke in the morning"
  • synonyms: break, get out, get around
• Cease an action temporarily.
  • usage: "We pause for station identification"; "let's break for lunch"
  • synonyms: pause, intermit, break
• Interrupt the flow of current in.
  • usage: "break a circuit"
  • synonyms: break
• Undergo breaking.
  • usage: "The simple vowels broke in many Germanic languages"
  • synonyms: break
• Find a flaw in.
  • usage: "break an alibi"; "break down a proof"
  • synonyms: break
• Find the solution or key to.
  • usage: "break the code"
  • synonyms: break
• Change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another.
  • usage: "Her voice broke to a whisper when she started to talk about her children"
  • synonyms: break
• Happen.
  • usage: "Report the news as it develops"; "These political movements recrudesce from time to time"
  • synonyms: break, recrudesce, develop
• Become fractured; break or crack on the surface only.
  • usage: "The glass cracked when it was heated"
  • synonyms: crack, check, break
• Crack; of the male voice in puberty.
  • usage: "his voice is breaking-he should no longer sing in the choir"
  • synonyms: break
• Fall sharply.
  • usage: "stock prices broke"
  • synonyms: break
• Fracture a bone of.
  • usage: "I broke my foot while playing hockey"
  • synonyms: fracture, break
• Diminish or discontinue abruptly.
  • usage: "The patient's fever broke last night"
  • synonyms: break
• Weaken or destroy in spirit or body.
  • usage: "His resistance was broken"; "a man broken by the terrible experience of near-death"
  • synonyms: break

adjective

• Physically and forcibly separated into pieces or cracked or split.
  • usage: "a broken mirror"; "a broken tooth"; "a broken leg"; "his neck is broken"
• Not continuous in space, time, or sequence or varying abruptly.
  • usage: "broken lines of defense"; "a broken cable transmission"; "broken sleep"; "tear off the stub above the broken line"; "a broken note"; "broken sobs"
• Subdued or brought low in condition or status.
  • usage: "brought low"; "a broken man"; "his broken spirit"
  • synonyms: crushed, humbled, humiliated, low
• Especially of promises or contracts. ( having been violated or disregarded)
  • usage: "broken (or unkept) promises"; "broken contracts"
  • synonyms: unkept
• Tamed or trained to obey.
  • usage: "a horse broken to the saddle"; "this old nag is well broken in"
  • synonyms: broken in
• Topographically very uneven.
  • usage: "broken terrain"; "rugged ground"
  • synonyms: rugged
• Imperfectly spoken or written.
  • usage: "broken English"
• Thrown into a state of disarray or confusion.
  • usage: "troops fleeing in broken ranks"; "a confused mass of papers on the desk"; "the small disordered room"; "with everything so upset"
  • synonyms: confused, disordered, upset
• Weakened and infirm.
  • usage: "broken health resulting from alcoholism"
• Destroyed financially.
  • usage: "the broken fortunes of the family"
  • synonyms: wiped out, impoverished
• Out of working order (`busted' is an informal substitute for `broken'. )
  • usage: "a broken washing machine"; "the coke machine is broken"; "the coke machine is busted"
  • synonyms: busted
• Discontinuous.
  • usage: "broken clouds"; "broken sunshine"
• Lacking a part or parts.
  • usage: "a broken set of encyclopedia"