Free Translator Free Translator
Translators Dictionaries Courses Other
Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Break   /breɪk/   Listen
Break

verb
(past broke, obs. brake; past part. broken, obs. broke; pres. part. breaking)
1.
Terminate.  Synonym: interrupt.  "Break a lucky streak" , "Break the cycle of poverty"
2.
Become separated into pieces or fragments.  Synonyms: come apart, fall apart, separate, split up.  "The freshly baked loaf fell apart"
3.
Render inoperable or ineffective.
4.
Ruin completely.  Synonym: bust.
5.
Destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments.  "She broke the match"
6.
Act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises.  Synonyms: breach, go against, infract, offend, transgress, violate.  "Violate the basic laws or human civilization" , "Break a law" , "Break a promise"
7.
Move away or escape suddenly.  Synonyms: break away, break out.  "Three inmates broke jail" , "Nobody can break out--this prison is high security"
8.
Scatter or part.
9.
Force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up.  Synonyms: burst, erupt.  "Erupt in anger"
10.
Prevent completion.  Synonyms: break off, discontinue, stop.  "Break off the negotiations"
11.
Enter someone's (virtual or real) property in an unauthorized manner, usually with the intent to steal or commit a violent act.  Synonym: break in.  "They broke into my car and stole my radio!" , "Who broke into my account last night?"
12.
Make submissive, obedient, or useful.  Synonym: break in.  "I broke in the new intern"
13.
Fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns.  Synonyms: go against, violate.
14.
Surpass in excellence.  Synonym: better.  "Break a record"
15.
Make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret.  Synonyms: bring out, disclose, discover, divulge, expose, give away, let on, let out, reveal, unwrap.  "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"
16.
Come into being.  "Voices broke in the air"
17.
Stop operating or functioning.  Synonyms: break down, conk out, die, fail, give out, give way, go, go bad.  "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"
18.
Interrupt a continued activity.  Synonym: break away.
19.
Make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing.
20.
Curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves.
21.
Lessen in force or effect.  Synonyms: damp, dampen, soften, weaken.  "Break a fall"
22.
Be broken in.
23.
Come to an end.
24.
Vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity.
25.
Cause to give up a habit.
26.
Give up.
27.
Come forth or begin from a state of latency.
28.
Happen or take place.
29.
Cause the failure or ruin of.  "This play will either make or break the playwright"
30.
Invalidate by judicial action.
31.
Discontinue an association or relation; go different ways.  Synonyms: break up, part, separate, split, split up.  "The couple separated after 25 years of marriage" , "My friend and I split up"
32.
Assign to a lower position; reduce in rank.  Synonyms: bump, demote, kick downstairs, relegate.  "He was broken down to Sergeant"
33.
Reduce to bankruptcy.  Synonyms: bankrupt, ruin, smash.  "The slump in the financial markets smashed him"
34.
Change directions suddenly.
35.
Emerge from the surface of a body of water.
36.
Break down, literally or metaphorically.  Synonyms: cave in, collapse, fall in, founder, give, give way.  "The business collapsed" , "The dam broke" , "The roof collapsed" , "The wall gave in" , "The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice"
37.
Do a break dance.  Synonyms: break-dance, break dance.
38.
Exchange for smaller units of money.
39.
Destroy the completeness of a set of related items.  Synonym: break up.
40.
Make the opening shot that scatters the balls.
41.
Separate from a clinch, in boxing.
42.
Go to pieces.  Synonyms: bust, fall apart, wear, wear out.  "The gears wore out" , "The old chair finally fell apart completely"
43.
Break a piece from a whole.  Synonyms: break off, snap off.
44.
Become punctured or penetrated.
45.
Pierce or penetrate.
46.
Be released or become known; of news.  Synonyms: get around, get out.
47.
Cease an action temporarily.  Synonyms: intermit, pause.  "Let's break for lunch"
48.
Interrupt the flow of current in.
49.
Undergo breaking.
50.
Find a flaw in.  "Break down a proof"
51.
Find the solution or key to.
52.
Change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another.
53.
Happen.  Synonyms: develop, recrudesce.  "These political movements recrudesce from time to time"
54.
Become fractured; break or crack on the surface only.  Synonyms: check, crack.
55.
Crack; of the male voice in puberty.
56.
Fall sharply.
57.
Fracture a bone of.  Synonym: fracture.
58.
Diminish or discontinue abruptly.
59.
Weaken or destroy in spirit or body.  "A man broken by the terrible experience of near-death"



Related searches:



WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Break" Quotes from Famous Books



... was very unkind to deliberately set to work to annoy me and make me trouble, by getting the school into a frolic. Anything done to break the order of study-hours, or to withstand any rule of the school, is always an unkindness to a teacher. There is scarcely a girl in school that might help me more than you, Gypsy, ...
— Gypsy Breynton • Elizabeth Stuart Phelps

... with Lawrence because he was troubled. His whole being was filled with a great fear. Remembering how Lawrence and Claire had acted lately, he had been thrown into a fever of jealous rage. He was utterly beyond his depth now, and he was silent because to speak would have meant to break into accusation. His imagination had pictured Claire in Lawrence's arms while he was gone; if he had actually known the truth it would have been less agonizing than ...
— Claire - The Blind Love of a Blind Hero, By a Blind Author • Leslie Burton Blades

... remember?" had been almost his very last words before departing for St. Petersburg. His devoted wife had promised this not once, but many times, while his finger was being shaken at her, and would have scorned herself had she thought it possible to break her vows. ...
— Count Bunker • J. Storer Clouston

... out General D'Hubert, speaking through his teeth, "if your Excellency deigns to favour me with any more confidential information I don't know what I will do. It's enough to break one's sword over one's knee, and fling ...
— A Set of Six • Joseph Conrad

... found it somewhere in the Belt," the Major said softly. He looked at the weapon again, shaking his head. "There isn't any such gun," he said finally. "These things you say it could do ... they would require energy enough to break down the cohesive forces of molecules. There isn't any way we know of to harness that kind of energy and channel it in a ...
— Gold in the Sky • Alan Edward Nourse

... imprisonment. The first and second are very vitious and unworthy of a Prince: in the third, men might well be directed by the examples of those two famous Romans, Regulus and Posthumius. I shall close this with the answer of Charles the fifth, when he was pressed to break his word with Luther for his safe return from Wormes; Fides rerum promissarum etsi toto mundo exulet, tamen apud imperatorem cam consistere oportet. Though truth be banisht out of the whole world, yet should it alwaies find harbour ...
— Machiavelli, Volume I - The Art of War; and The Prince • Niccolo Machiavelli

... answered positively. "You know what we're going to do with this money, Hank, and you know that if we start to break into it the whole will go and we'll be up a spout on ...
— Owen Clancy's Happy Trail - or, The Motor Wizard in California • Burt L. Standish

... hellish purposes, should have resisted so feebly, when met by the whites in arms. Desperation alone, one would think, might have led to greater efforts. More than twenty of them attacked Dr. Blunt's house on Tuesday morning, a little before day-break, defended by two men and three boys. They fled precipitately at the first fire; and their future plans of mischief, were entirely disconcerted and broken up. Escaping thence, each individual sought his own safety either in concealment, ...
— The Confessions Of Nat Turner • Nat Turner

... but not at the compliment. His words rang with freedom; the freedom of the heights, where heroic effort was the rule, in place of luxury. She longed now, as she had often done, to escape from bondage; to break away. ...
— Vane of the Timberlands • Harold Bindloss

... just as soon not give him an even break. You wouldn't stand the chance of a snowflake in hell, and if you've got the brains of a louse ...
— Subspace Survivors • E. E. Smith

... slowly for a time, only to break suddenly and swiftly in the end. And the hurried frantic search for the missing had brought no results. Ironically the god of chance had led the young man's repentant footsteps to the door ...
— A Little Book for Christmas • Cyrus Townsend Brady

... "It would break my heart to think otherwise, darling. No, no—I have not lost a daughter, but have gained ...
— Home as Found • James Fenimore Cooper

... hear me. He was busy talking to Allyn on damage control. "You can't cut it, hey?—All right—disengage the converter on the auxiliary probe and break out that roll of duralloy cable in the stores—Pollard! don't fire over one torp at a time when that lad shows up. Load the other launchers with blanks. Make him think we're shooting. We have to keep him hopping. Now listen ...
— A Question of Courage • Jesse Franklin Bone

... cross of thorn, With tears that horologe forlorn. And all my moments by its dust I measure now with prayerful trust, And though my courage oft turns weak, Fresh comfort from that cross I seek; In wistful hope I yet may wake To find the thorn in blossom break, And from life's shivered glass behold My being's sands ...
— A Celtic Psaltery • Alfred Perceval Graves

... declare that theory is preposterous. It is true that the exercise of an independent sovereignty necessitates the demonstration of a very considerable amount of independence. A rebel state that cannot break its own blockade may not call upon a foreign power to move from its neutrality to do so. But the demand for equal suffrage is in nowise analogous to a claim for independent sovereignty. It is rather analogous to the claim to the protection of existing laws, which any group of people, ...
— Woman and the Republic • Helen Kendrick Johnson

... erotic, Heinrich of Morungen, says in one of his poems that his lady is radiant "as the sun at break of ...
— The Evolution of Love • Emil Lucka

... and young, boys and girls. The spirit of the occasion takes hold of the stately bartender, who condescends to a plate of stewed duck; even the fat policeman—whose duty it will be, later in the evening, to break up the fights—draws up a chair to the foot of the table. And the children shout and the babies yell, and every one laughs and sings and chatters—while above all the deafening clamor Cousin Marija shouts orders ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair

... just before the break-up, which came about because Mead was old, and—I hope there is no harm in saying of him what can be said of many men who have done finely in the world—too fond of "the wine when it is red," Henry use ...
— The Story of My Life - Recollections and Reflections • Ellen Terry

... All the male laborers, tradesmen included, above eighteen years of age, working on an estate, are bound to take the usual night watch by turns, but only once in ten days, notice to be given before noon to break off from work in the afternoon with the nurses, and to come to work next day at eight o'clock. The watch to be delivered in the usual manner by ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Volume 2, 1917 • Various

... part of Somali land is a sandy plain, thinly covered with thorns and bounded by two ranges, the Ghauts and Sub-Ghauts. The latter or maritime mountains begin at Tajurrah, and extend to Karam (long. 46o E.), where they break into detached groups; the distance from the coast varies from 6 to 15 miles, the height from 2000 to 3000 feet, and the surface is barren, the rock being denuded of soil by rain. The Ghauts lie from 8 to 40 ...
— First footsteps in East Africa • Richard F. Burton

... possession of Isobel were to attempt a coup down here, we should be rather in a mess. We're a mile from the village, and Lord knows how many from a police-station, and there isn't a door in the cottage a man couldn't break open with ...
— The Master Mummer • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... was very much living and of the world when I saw her last, two years ago," said Mrs. Van Loo, with an easy smile. "I dare say that was a ruse of her relatives—a very stupid one—to break off the affair, for I think they had other plans. But, dear me! now I remember, was there not some little quarrel between you before? Some letter from you that was not very kind? My impression is that there was something of the sort, and that the young ...
— The Three Partners • Bret Harte

... "Does the light break in upon you now?" said Ferrers. "Are you prepared to go through a part that requires subtlety, delicacy, address, and, above all, self-control?—qualities that are the common attributes of ...
— Ernest Maltravers, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... were preparing to break camp, the last named had begged my father for a place in our wagon. He was a stranger to our family, afflicted with consumption, too ill to make the journey on horseback, and the family with whom he had travelled thus far could no longer accommodate him. His forlorn condition ...
— The Expedition of the Donner Party and its Tragic Fate • Eliza Poor Donner Houghton

... it in that informal way, with only her first name, if she meant to break off the acquaintance," he argued with himself. And yet the substance of the note was discouraging in the extreme, so that Guilford Duncan was a very apprehensive and unhappy man as he hurried to Barbara's home. He still held her note ...
— A Captain in the Ranks - A Romance of Affairs • George Cary Eggleston

... wish to break it, good my lord, I am assur'd, when you shall see the Dutchesse, Whose matchlesse beauties will renew the minde Of her rare entertainment, and her presence Put all new thoughts of love ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. III • Various

... said: "Break thou these yokes; undo These heavy burdens. I ordain A work to last thy whole life through, A ministry ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... here, return thou running. It is unbecoming to keep such a man as thou sayest he is in the wind and the rain." Said Kay: "By the hand of my friend, if thou wouldst follow my counsel, thou wouldst not break through the laws of the court because of him." "Not so, blessed Kay," said Arthur; "it is an honor to us to be resorted to, and the greater our courtesy, the greater will be our renown and our fame ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch

... understand you." The voice was petulant and so distinct that even Shirley could hear it, as he knelt by the side of the phonograph. Again Van Cleft insisted on his deafness. There was the suggestion of a break in the voice which brought to Shirley's eyes the sparkle of a presentiment of success. At last Van Cleft admitted ...
— The Voice on the Wire • Eustace Hale Ball

... the moment venture to say anything, but stood with the rest, nursing his wrath. Had he really been at fault he would have thought nothing of it, but first to have been deprived by circumstances of the opportunity to break the rules, and then to be punished for a breach of them, was ...
— Sword and Pen - Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier • John Algernon Owens

... what she herself could have done, according to her own interpretation, with impunity. Japan has broken the international law by infringing the neutrality of China, but Great Britain can claim that she did not break a law by doing exactly what ...
— The New York Times Current History of the European War, Vol. 1, January 9, 1915 - What Americans Say to Europe • Various

... societies are referred to above;[2019] here we have only to notice their germinal ecclesiastical character. They represent a partial break-up of tribal communal worship by assigning special duties and granting special privileges to certain initiated persons. Totemic groups are sometimes (as in Central Australia) charged with specific functions in the tribal life; but membership in such groups ...
— Introduction to the History of Religions - Handbooks on the History of Religions, Volume IV • Crawford Howell Toy

... night, arrived at the break of day on the north end of the lake where he found a small post which he carried without opposition. The surprise was complete, and he took possession of Mount Defiance, Mount Hope, the landing place, and about 200 batteaux. ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing

... the ferocious manners of Britons coincided with far wider and more remarkable innovations. This was the time, at home, of the second Parliamentary Reform, which did at least as much to infringe the authority of his enemy the Philistine, as the first had done to break the power of the half-dreaded, half-courted Barbarian. This was the time when, abroad, the long-disguised and disorganised power of Germany was to rearrange the map of Europe, and to bring about a considerable rearrangement of Mr Arnold's own ideas as to the respective ...
— Matthew Arnold • George Saintsbury

... certain that for choice no two of them should scan the same. The singular beauty of the verse analysed above is due, so far as analysis can carry us, part, indeed, to the clever repetition of L, D, and N, but part to this variety of scansion in the groups. The groups which, like the bar in music, break up the verse for utterance, fall uniambically; and in declaiming a so- called iambic verse, it may so happen that we never utter one iambic foot. And yet to this neglect of the original beat there ...
— The Art of Writing and Other Essays • Robert Louis Stevenson

... to a continuous tradition against their view. We have an uninterrupted tradition during two thousand four hundred and seventy-two years that there was a man Moses who gave a Law accepted by his people and held without any break for two thousand four hundred and seventy-two years. We do not have to prove he was a genuine prophet since they ...
— A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy • Isaac Husik

... the printer asked Lowell if he could not send in something to occupy that space. As poetry came easiest, Lowell wrote a number of stanzas about "Zekle's Courtin'." There were only six stanzas in the original edition. Lowell wrote more, but told the printer to break off when the page was filled. This the printer did, and the stanzas which were not put in type were lost, as Lowell had kept no copy. This piece became so popular that friends urged the poet to finish the story, ...
— Four Famous American Writers: Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, • Sherwin Cody

... on her hand all the while and no matter what excuse she would hit upon to break away, he never relaxed his hold. Everything went smoothly for him until evening, when ...
— The Emperor of Portugalia • Selma Lagerlof

... bring upon her; what must be the intoxication of that holy soul, flying thus to the desert, solely engrossed by the desire of enjoying there without obstacle the presence of her Spouse! And how firm must be her resolution to break with the world, since she thus fled from all ...
— Purgatory • Mary Anne Madden Sadlier

... see the efforts that were made at Cairo to break in the new governor, and to fit him for his post, in accordance with the traditions of the country. As soon as everything was settled, Gordon, with his usual promptness, and absence of all love of display, was anxious to be off to his post of duty, and for that purpose to utilise ...
— General Gordon - A Christian Hero • Seton Churchill

... who had been crossing the floor stood there as though transfixed. A man who was dealing paused with an outstretched card in his hand. Every eye was turned on the threshold. It was Norgate who stood there, Norgate metamorphosed, in khaki uniform—an amazing spectacle! Mrs. Barlow was the first to break the silence with a piercing shriek. Then the whole room seemed to be in a turmoil. Selingman alone sat quite still. There was a grey shade upon his face, and the veins were standing out at the back of ...
— The Double Traitor • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... ploughing usually starts at 7.30 a.m. and goes on until 5.30 p.m., with a break of a couple of hours during the day for dinner; that is, where labour is employed. The settler himself handling his own land usually works from dawn till dark, using changes of horses during the day. Both mouldboard and disc ploughs are ...
— Wheat Growing in Australia • Australia Department of External Affairs

... be room for hope, because there was the fact,—proved by the incontestable evidence of Burke's Peerage,—that younger sons did so often succeed. But if another heir were to be born, then, as far as she was aware, Burke's Peerage promised her nothing. "It's a pity he shouldn't break his neck out hunting," said ...
— Marion Fay • Anthony Trollope

... Regnfred, the King's son, Through the green wood rode his way; And there met him a little stranger lad, About the break of day. ...
— Tord of Hafsborough - and Other Ballads • Anonymous

... it seemed to me that Fate was dealing with me with a cruelty which I did not deserve. One or two of Fenwick's parasites accompanied me everywhere; there seemed to be no lack of money, and I had pretty well all I wanted. There were times, of course, when I tried to break the spell, but they used to drug me then, until my mind began to give way under the strain. Sometimes we were in Paris, sometimes we were in London, but I have not the slightest recollection of how I got from one place to another. I was like a man who is constantly on the ...
— The Mystery of the Four Fingers • Fred M. White

... of rabies occur here and there (sporadic), but if the conditions are favorable epidemics break out. One dog may bite several dogs and these dogs bite others and thus spread the disease to many. Not every animal bitten by a mad dog develops the disease. The disease does not always follow the bite. Only about forty per cent of all animals bitten by ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... action depends on the motive from which we act. If I fling half a crown to a beggar with intention to break his head, and he picks it up and buys victuals with it, the physical effect is good; but, with respect to me, the action is very wrong. So, religious exercises, if not performed with an intention to please GOD, avail us nothing. As our Saviour says of those who perform them from other motives, ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 1 • Boswell

... first screened and cleaned, then passed on to the corrugated rolls, or the first break, where it is partially flattened and slightly crushed and a small amount of flour, known as the break flour, is separated by means of sieves, while the main portion is conveyed through elevators to the second break, where the kernels are more completely flattened and the granular ...
— Human Foods and Their Nutritive Value • Harry Snyder

... represented as having two birds, Hugin (thought) and Munin (memory or, according to some authorities, the longing that impels Oden to activity), which are dispatched to the earth at every day-break and in the evening return to Oden and whisper into his ears the news of ...
— Fritiofs Saga • Esaias Tegner

... of Church and State, then what might not ensue before reason would again lay her restraining hand upon the rent nation! For—strange anomaly—no strife is so venomous, no wars so bloody, no issues so steeped in deadliest hatred, as those which break forth in the name ...
— Carmen Ariza • Charles Francis Stocking

... it would be to me to see them attending to her! So useful for the next time the boys break their legs! I love Whitey, and feel better for it every time I see ...
— More about Pixie • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... of the Wood—personified the tree on which grew the Golden Bough. Hence if that tree was the oak, the King of the Wood must have been a personification of the oakspirit. It is, therefore, easy to understand why, before he could be slain, it was necessary to break the Golden Bough. As an oak-spirit, his life or death was in the mistletoe on the oak, and so long as the mistletoe remained intact, he, like Balder, could not die. To slay him, therefore, it was necessary to break the mistletoe, and probably, ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... from the hop-kiln I found a place where charcoal-burning was carried on. The brown charcoal-burner, upright as a bolt, walked slowly round the smouldering heap, and wherever flame seemed inclined to break out cast damp ashes upon the spot. Six or seven water-butts stood in a row for his use. To windward he had built a fence of flakes, or wattles as they are called here, well worked in with brushwood, ...
— Field and Hedgerow • Richard Jefferies

... number not to be counted, and of a nature not to be borne, even in idea. The language of passion and exaggeration may silence that of sober reason in other places, it has not done it here. The question here is, whether the treaty be really so very fatal as to oblige the nation to break its faith. I admit that such a treaty ought not to be executed. I admit that self-preservation is the first law of society, as well as of individuals. It would, perhaps, be deemed an abuse of terms to call that ...
— American Eloquence, Volume I. (of 4) - Studies In American Political History (1896) • Various

... as he looked at this strange personage, with his uncouth garb, his pale visage, his grizzly beard, and his fixed, staring, fish-like eye, his teeth began to chatter, his hair to rise on his head, and a cold sweat to break out all over his body. How long he remained in this situation he could not tell, for he was like one fascinated. He could not take his gaze off from the spectre; but lay staring at him with his whole intellect absorbed in the contemplation. The old man remained ...
— Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists • Washington Irving

... Break that deer, leach that brawn, rear that goose, lift that swan, sauce that capon, spoil that hen, frust that chicken, unbrace that mallard, unlace that coney, dismember that hern, display that crane, disfigure that peacock, unjoynt that bittern, untach that curlew, allay ...
— The accomplisht cook - or, The art & mystery of cookery • Robert May

... about it," he declared. "Its riddle is easily enough solved. The trouble is that the fetters which bind us are sometimes beyond our power to break." ...
— The Moving Finger • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... Aumone.[836] A crowd of people hasten to the spot; they see the hole and a piece of the wall which had been restored, with two loop-holes; they fail to understand, and think themselves sold and betrayed into the enemy's hands; they rave and break forth into howls, and seek the priest in charge of the hospital to tear him to pieces.[837] A few days after, on Holy Thursday, a similar rumour is spread abroad: traitors are about to deliver up the town into the hands of the English. The folk seize their weapons; soldiers, burgesses, ...
— The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 (of 2) • Anatole France

... I attempt to purchase her at all? Why not make a bold effort, and free myself from this delirious passion? She is not worthy of the sacrifice I would make for her. No—she has deceived me—surely she has deceived me. Why not break my promise, plighted though it be in words of fervid love? Why not flee from the spot, and endeavour to escape the torture that is maddening both my heart and brain? ...
— The Quadroon - Adventures in the Far West • Mayne Reid

... embellished, it was very far from being low. In short, his style was easy, and flowing, and his appearance rather genteel than otherwise: but his action was a little defective, partly through the disagreeable tone of his voice, and partly by a few ridiculous gestures, of which he could not entirely break himself. He flourished in the time between the flight and the return of Sylla, when the Republic was deprived of a regular administration of justice, and of its former dignity and splendor. But the very favourable ...
— Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators; also His Orator, or Accomplished Speaker. • Marcus Tullius Cicero

... his other leg as a break against further descent, Godfrey stopped short to listen, and as he did so he suffered from a catching of the breath, for all at once he heard a sound from within the house, the ivy on a level with his face became illuminated, and a candle was carried past the window of the room ...
— The New Forest Spy • George Manville Fenn

... with whose names the papers are filled had sat silent, gloomy, and apparently idle. As soon as a fair opportunity was given them they escaped out of the House, as boys might escape from school. Everybody had rejoiced in the break-up of the evening, except that one poor old lord who had worked so hard. Vavasor had spent everything that he had to become a Member of that House, and now, as he went alone to his lodgings, he could not but ask himself whether the thing ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... Livingstone became convinced that Bibles and preaching were not all that was necessary. Civilization must accompany Christianization; and commerce was essential to civilization; for commerce, more speedily than any thing else, would break down the isolation of the tribes, by making them mutually dependent upon and serviceable to ...
— Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa - Journeys and Researches in South Africa • David Livingstone

... serve you better, that in public and in the council I appear in my character as a constitutionalist, and that I avoid every thing that may at all reveal my personal attachment towards you. In this respect I must break through all etiquette, and avoid attending the court. In the council, I shall oppose your views, and shall propose as our representatives in foreign courts men devoted to the nation. When your repugnance to my choice shall be invincible and on good ...
— History of the Girondists, Volume I - Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution • Alphonse de Lamartine

... occasion the Montereyans did not break their fealty to the Mexican government; they wanted justice, and they took it into their own hands. One of the most affluent citizens was unanimously selected governor pro tempore, till another should arrive, and they returned to their usual pleasures and apathy, ...
— Monsieur Violet • Frederick Marryat

... preferred merely to break his heart, and not his head. First, he had that wonderful pleasure-villa, Hampton Court, with all its treasures, presented him by Wolsey; then he removed him from all his offices, and deprived him of all his honors. ...
— Henry VIII And His Court • Louise Muhlbach

... blockhead, who is so much in debt to the Hollander, having now a treasure more by much than all his Crowne was worth, and that which would for ever have beggared the Hollander, should not take this time to break with the Hollander, and thereby pay his debt which must have been forgiven him, and have got the greatest treasure into his hands that ever was together in the world. By and by my Lord took me aside to discourse of his private matters, who was very free with me touching the ill condition of the ...
— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... a long talk with Mr. Dearborn the other day," she continued. "He said his wife's health is failing, and their son is trying to persuade them to break up housekeeping and live with them. If she is no better in the spring, they will ...
— Big Brother • Annie Fellows-Johnston

... asked my father a few days before they started. "I don't fare to know rightly," was the answer; "but we're goin' to sleep the fust night at Debenham" (a village four miles off), "and that'll kinder break the jarney." They went, but the Southern States and the negroes were not at all to their liking, and the last thing heard of them was ...
— Two Suffolk Friends • Francis Hindes Groome

... treated is brought into grave discredit. Eggs, when being sent any distance, should be separately wrapped in cotton wool, and packed in a strong box, any interstices being lightly filled with wool also. Sawdust or bran should never be used as a packing medium, as the eggs shake together and break ...
— Practical Taxidermy • Montagu Browne

... 'you have not been seeing Dr. Donaldson, and asking him any questions—have you, child?' Margaret did not reply—only looked wistfully towards her. Mrs. Hale became more displeased. 'He would not, surely, break his word to ...
— North and South • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... them, were they even assured that no unfairness would be practised. Besides, they make a vow, to win four or five guineas a day, and to be satisfied with that gain; a vow which they seldom or never break. ...
— The Memoirs of Count Grammont, Complete • Anthony Hamilton

... two impulses, so inextricably do they mix their effects. Emulation is the very nerve of human society. Why are you, my hearers, sitting here before me? If no one whom you ever heard of had attended a 'summer school' or teachers' institute, would it have occurred to any one of you to break out independently and do a thing so unprescribed by fashion? Probably not. Nor would your pupils come to you unless the children of their parents' neighbors were all simultaneously being sent to school. We wish not to be lonely ...
— Talks To Teachers On Psychology; And To Students On Some Of Life's Ideals • William James

... has grit, all right," he said to his associate, when they came together in getting out the cash to begin the day's business; "most lads in his condition would be scared half to death, and ready to break down. Dick is a chap after my own heart. Here comes Mr. Gibbs, and the cashier is with him. I believe he must have met him at the station, and has told the whole story on the way here. Now for it, Payson. This is a nasty piece of bad luck for ...
— Dick the Bank Boy - Or, A Missing Fortune • Frank V. Webster

... of the Plains were covered with water, and were musical with frogs in the spring, but in hot weather they dried up, leaving here and there a stagnant pond. I have heard father tell how one of his neighbors tried to break a field by beginning on the outside, and plowing farther in as the land dried up. But the snakes and frogs grew thicker and thicker, as he neared the center. At length the grass seemed almost alive with snakes, and his big ox-team became wild with fright, and ran away, and ...
— Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler • Pardee Butler

... threat did not produce any results. Vaniman stepped back and drove his foot against the panel, but not with enough force to break the lock. His kick was in the way of admonition. After a few moments Britt opened the door; he had an iron poker in his hand. Vaniman marched in. "You don't need any ...
— When Egypt Went Broke • Holman Day

... break it." The mule turned back his ears, as upon them fell the click of the opening gun, followed by the drop of a shell into an open palm. "Ach, yes, I thought so! It needed only this! This so small shot is for ...
— A Tar-Heel Baron • Mabell Shippie Clarke Pelton

... diet turns more spare, and I fear we shall realise the stories they tell of the slother: we have almost eat up the last green leaf on the plant, and have nothing left for it but to drop from the tree and break ...
— Bride of Lammermoor • Sir Walter Scott

... worst of all the miserable meals she had partaken of in fear and trembling at this place of her captivity. Ermentrude, too, was soon in such a state of excitement, that not only was Christina's womanhood bitterly ashamed and grieved for her, but there was serious danger that she might at any moment break out with some allusion to her maiden's recusancy in her ...
— The Dove in the Eagle's Nest • Charlotte M. Yonge

... a gas mask tied under his chin. They think there nose bags an pretty near break there necks tryin to get at them. Ive showed my horse his mask open an everything. He doesnt seem to catch on tho. Thats the trouble with these French horses. ...
— "Same old Bill, eh Mable!" • Edward Streeter

... own dialect. In passing from one village to another the dialects may be mutually intelligible, but by the time one has passed from the first village in the chain to the last, one may find that the dialect of the first and last are utterly unintelligible to each other. A real break in language, as opposed to dialect variations, occurs where there is a considerable barrier between groups, such as a mountain range, a river, a tribal or political boundary. The more impenetrable the barriers between two groups the more will the languages differ, and the less mutually ...
— Human Traits and their Social Significance • Irwin Edman

... I do not like it and I do not wish any house to be built to have it sold. Perhaps at times if I should be unwell I might take drop just for medicine; and shall any one insist on bringing it where we are, I should break the treaty." ...
— The Treaties of Canada with The Indians of Manitoba - and the North-West Territories • Alexander Morris

... got the food he wished, and departed, Rama reflects with great distress on the words of Time, which require that Lakshman should die. Lakshman however exhorts Rama not to grieve, but to abandon him and not break his own promise. The counsellors concurring in this advice, Rama abandons Lakshman, who goes to the river Sarayu, suppresses all his senses, and is conveyed bodily by Indra to heaven. The gods are delighted by the arrival of the fourth part of Vishnu. Rama then resolves ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... not become an expert passer of glassware as a result of practice in passing bricks, for the two kinds of things are not handled alike. Indeed, the man accustomed to passing bricks might be more likely to break glassware than another man who previously had no particular skill in passing anything. The expert brick-passer would be apt to forget sometimes that he was passing glass. His muscles might treat the fragile ware with the rough habit ...
— Certain Success • Norval A. Hawkins

... break to harness! But when these Palmas hold the bit, it would be idle to plunge, kick, or attempt to run. They are for rebellious humanity, what Rarey was for unruly horseflesh. Once no fiery colt of Ukraine ...
— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

... storming of the walls of the city of Bethulia; the hand-to-hand conflicts; the death-defying chariot charges at break-neck speed; the rearing and plunging horses infuriated by the din of battle; the wonderful camp of the terrible Holofernes, equipped with rugs brought from the far East; the dancing girls in their exhibition of the exquisite ...
— The Art Of The Moving Picture • Vachel Lindsay

... that Hillsborough retained his position by precarious tenure. He shrewdly suspected that if the war with Spain, which then seemed imminent, were to break out, Hillsborough would at once be removed. For in that case it would be the policy of the government to conciliate the colonies, at any cost, for the time being. This crisis passed by, fortunately for the secretary and unfortunately for the provinces. Yet ...
— Benjamin Franklin • John Torrey Morse, Jr.

... intuition came to Peter, if that hole were not stopped up instantly, the force of the flow through it would rapidly increase from the pounding of that mighty sea behind it. In a night the flood would break through the dyke and perhaps destroy all the ...
— Ten Boys from History • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... truth, like him who laid them, are "the same, yesterday, to-day and forever." The Book, with all its precious doctrines, is here to stay. It can not be destroyed. Fire has not burned it, water has not quenched it, the edicts of tyrants and popes have not been able to break its power. The Church of God can calmly rest on "the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." (1 Peter i. 23.) Hence we may calmly move on ...
— The Testimony of the Bible Concerning the Assumptions of Destructive Criticism • S. E. Wishard

... nature, not for the existence of things as substances—there can be neither blind chance nor a blind necessity (but only a conditional, hence an intelligible, necessity); and, further, that in the series of phenomena, there can be neither leap, nor gap, nor break, and hence no void—in mundo non datur casus, non datur fatum, non datur saltus, non ...
— History Of Modern Philosophy - From Nicolas of Cusa to the Present Time • Richard Falckenberg

... break y^e course of co[m]unitie, as may be showed by many reasons. A. That is but said, and I say againe, it will best foster comunion, as may be showed ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford

... waiting-maid—a housekeeper now, in his mother's family. Lord Mowbray assured Mr. Harrington, that he did not mean to have carried the jest (the word jest scratched out), the thing farther than to show him his power to break off matters, if he pleased—but he ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. IX - [Contents: Harrington; Thoughts on Bores; Ormond] • Maria Edgeworth

... that if I should break the balloon with a cannon-ball while she remained with the vessel over the land, the fall would inevitable occasion the destruction of the hull, and which, in its fall, might crush some of the multitude; therefore I thought it safer to take my aim when the balloon ...
— The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen • Rudolph Erich Raspe

... would do that. But he is dead: all that he can have is just that I should be faithful to him. And it is not only that he put it in his will, but I gave him my promise that I would do it. How could I break my promise to one that is dead, that trusted in me? Oh, no, no! It will kill me if you are angry; but even then, even then, I must do what I promised ...
— Sir Tom • Mrs. Oliphant

... originally supposed her to be his slave, his property, and hence possessed a right under the law to restrain her liberty. But even if I was debarred from bringing the man to punishment, I could break his power, and overturn his plans. Beyond that it would be a personal matter between us; and the thought gave me joy. Certainly this method of procedure looked feasible to me; I saw in it no probability ...
— The Devil's Own - A Romance of the Black Hawk War • Randall Parrish

... a mood to break down the door with his big shoulders; but the Scotchman, with more reason, if less intuition, fumbled about on the frame of the door till he found the invisible button; and ...
— The Innocence of Father Brown • G. K. Chesterton

... the feet, all carved in white marble, and then spread over an area larger than any modern churches, making a forest of columns to bear aloft those ponderous beams of stone, without anything tending to break the continuity of horizontal lines, by which the harmony and simplicity of the whole are regulated! So accurately squared and nicely adjusted were the stones and pillars of which these temples were composed, ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume III • John Lord

... that the officer's record was not quite clear enough to allow him to take the chance of a contest with so bold an antagonist as the squire of Ridgely. He did not know just who he was, or what he might be able to do. So he was willing to "break even," and he walked off threatning, but leaving the squire master ...
— Gordon Keith • Thomas Nelson Page

... flint instruments and the best grower of garden vegetables in the county, also of apples—such were some of his attainments. That was what made his sermons so popular, since at times one or the other of these subjects would break out into them, his theory being that God spoke to us through ...
— When the World Shook - Being an Account of the Great Adventure of Bastin, Bickley and Arbuthnot • H. Rider Haggard

... Here let us break the chain of rhymes that are unbroken in the text, to notice the extraordinary skill with which the rhythm has been woven in one paragraph, suggesting by recurrences of sound the passing of a multitude, which is presented at the same time to the eye of fancy by accumulated images. The next ...
— Percy Bysshe Shelley • John Addington Symonds

... of others. Rage and shame mingled with the keen agony of outraged feeling. 'I will not endure it,' I said, mentally, springing from my bed and crossing the chamber with a flushed brow and a strong step; 'never!' And I ground my teeth upon each other, while a fierce light seemed to break in upon my brain; it was the light of the Tempter's smile, and I almost laughed aloud as the horrible thought of suicide started before me. I felt that I might escape the ordeal of public scorn and pity; that I might ...
— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... I hurried towards where I had dropped the powder-horn, guided by the traces of my feet; and recovering it, immediately reloaded my rifle. Pat shouted to me to make haste, as he was afraid that the buffalo would break loose. I, of course, was not likely to delay longer than I could help. Stopping within a dozen paces of the buffalo, which eyed me as I approached, I lifted my rifle to my ...
— Snow Shoes and Canoes - The Early Days of a Fur-Trader in the Hudson Bay Territory • William H. G. Kingston

... when Mettius, in accordance with the treaty which had been concluded, asked Tullus what his orders were, he ordered him to keep his young men under arms, for he intended to employ them, if a war should break out with the Veientes. After this both armies were led away to their homes. Horatius marched in front, carrying before him the spoils of the three brothers: his maiden sister, who had been betrothed to one of the Curiatii, met him before the gate Capena;[23] and having recognised on her ...
— Roman History, Books I-III • Titus Livius

... and sickness ensues; clog up a stream, and the water overflows; obstruct the future, and revolutions break out. ...
— Napoleon the Little • Victor Hugo

... the shriek of old Parrish as he understood. Jim put forth all his strength in a mad effort to break free. A child would have had more chance in the grip of a giant. And each time the arms of the gods revolved, the unseen force pushed Jim, Lucille, and Parrish nearer ...
— Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May, 1930 • Various

... of things yet undiscovered, and enriches us with treasures, of which we had been hitherto entirely ignorant. The nature of the human mind, and the capabilities of our species are in like manner a magazine of undiscovered things, till some mighty genius comes to break the surface, and shew us the wonderful treasures that lay beneath uncalled ...
— Thoughts on Man - His Nature, Productions and Discoveries, Interspersed with - Some Particulars Respecting the Author • William Godwin

... watch; but the skipper—Captain Rainhill—was also on deck; and together the pair assiduously promenaded the poop, to and fro, pausing for a moment to listen and peer anxiously into the thickness to windward every time that they reached the break of the poop at one end of their walk, and the stern grating at ...
— Dick Leslie's Luck - A Story of Shipwreck and Adventure • Harry Collingwood

... accident, or the failure of a bank—will happen to a certain percentage of their covered clients, and they adjust their rates accordingly. But something that would change a five-percent-failure rate to a fifty-percent-failure rate would break the company. ...
— Damned If You Don't • Gordon Randall Garrett

... a large tree (Hernandia Peltata). A family god of the same name was supposed to live in it, and hence no one dared to pluck a leaf or break a branch. ...
— Samoa, A Hundred Years Ago And Long Before • George Turner

... strike the Blade with a Key or other Piece of Iron, and if he gives a clear Sound, there is no hidden Fault in it. In bending a Blade you must not force it, what I have said being sufficient to know it by, and besides by forcing it, it may be so weakened in some Part as to break when it comes ...
— The Art of Fencing - The Use of the Small Sword • Monsieur L'Abbat

... his life. He was rather ashamed of this (had never confessed it), and the time seemed ripe now to break his peace record. Drawing back, to give himself a greater spring, he landed a heavy blow somewhere in mid-air. Said locality surviving the attack, he withdrew to ...
— The Gentle Art of Cooking Wives • Elizabeth Strong Worthington

... might bring to her. And Arethusa, believing that she knew just exactly what was to happen by reason of what had already happened, settled the outlines of this future in her dreaming, over and over again, without a single ray of light to break through the darkness of her picture. She would spend it here at the Farm, this strangely quiet Farm; more than ever "a household of women," without Timothy running in and out every day. And some day she would ...
— The Heart of Arethusa • Francis Barton Fox

... but strictly taken, it is only so much of her bottom as she rests upon when aground. Such ships as have long and withal broad floors, lie on the ground with most security; whereas others which are narrow in the floor, fall over on their sides and break their timbers. ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth

... times. He liked to get drunk at seasonable periods. He would cheerfully break a head or a window, and would bandage the one damage or pay for the other with equal skill and pleasure. He liked to tramp rugged miles swinging his arms and whistling as he went, and he could sit for hours by the side of a ditch thinking thoughts without words—an ...
— Here are Ladies • James Stephens

... misgivings. Reflecting upon the shortness of human life and the vast mass of really GREAT literature, I see with regret courses offered dealing with the bubbles floating on the surface of sundry literatures— bubbles soon to break, some of ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White



Words linked to "Break" :   outstrip, complete fracture, contravene, peach, vary, drop dead, work out, get, disjoint, blow, hold on, express feelings, break someone's heart, get around, interval, disperse, modify, blunt, diphthongize, injure, capillary fracture, frazzle, faulting, change, go on, go off, deaden, choke, babble, express emotion, occultation, decay, cracking, barracking, quit, intermit, lull, tell, invalidate, diphthongise, smashing, injury, fracture, fly, blackwash, cut-in, fissure, impoverish, abatement, break dancing, time interval, void, conk, outperform, quash, flee, dissociate, fall, implode, misfire, crumple, disrespect, give-up the ghost, blab, switch, modification, buckle, founder, weaken, leak out, tame, betray, shot, interpellation, escape, let the cat out of the bag, give the axe, outdo, damage, armed forces, time-out, armed services, sin, snap, croak, crevice, alteration, pop off, break seal, emerge, blab out, ruin, stress fracture, eclipse, hurt, out, incomplete fracture, domesticate, ladder, shatter, spill the beans, disunite, slump, dance, come forth, crumble, impacted fracture, kick the bucket, disrupt, military machine, strike-slip fault, designate, wait, rest, muckrake, time out, exceed, occurrent, blackout, annul, misfunction, geology, splintering, hold, disassociate, blow out, commute, crush, confide, divorce, take five, puzzle out, exchange, decease, interjection, flop, pool, end, crash, jailbreak, suspend, drop the ball, dampen, trip the light fantastic toe, harm, take a breather, make, let out, pass, punctuation, open fracture, leak, bog down, relief, cash in one's chips, finish, give the gate, freeze, fortuity, take flight, lessen, respite, secede, penetrate, happening, conform to, go down, deafen, pass away, expire, intrude, shattering, split, reprieve, blunder, heckling, prisonbreak, sink, score, spread out, trespass, terminate, disunify, holdup, burn out, delegate, flight, appear, wound, keep, buy the farm, sing, sprint, breathe, come out, splinter, pocket billiards, promote, come apart, give the bounce, bog, outgo, caesura, delay, break even, spring, catch one's breath, lay off, coffee break, abandon, snuff it, figure out, run, change integrity, postponement, interposition, simple fracture, fly in the teeth of, cut off, cut short, depute, get away, bewray, conflict, lick, transgress, dash, turn, divide, stroke, happen, scissure, war machine, come out of the closet, time lag, perish, snap off, Denali Fault, slide down, insert, natural event, surmount, detach, interpolation, hiatus, nullify, disclose, come about, pass off, assign, run afoul, letup, San Andreas Fault, avoid, depressed fracture, chipping, infringe, tattle, fault line, change state, become, reduce, chip, suspension, inclined fault, cleft, occurrence, give up, relegate, abruption, go against, alter, closed fracture, breaking, separation, repair, domesticise, rest period, comminuted fracture, trip the light fantastic, part, break dance, malfunction, accident, colloquialism, puncture, shoot, compression fracture, detachment, fragmentize, goof, pause, occur, dead air, chink, military, halftime, sideline, destroy, change of integrity, fly in the face of, cease, compound fracture, discontinue, hairline fracture, decrease, chance event, schism, breakup, infract, tennis, break of day, fatigue fracture, hap, take place, break up, dislocation, perforate, gaolbreak, work, scatter, domesticize, take ten, solve, boob, interruption, fall out, outmatch, reclaim, displaced fracture, trauma, exit, fall in, lapse, dilapidate, intermission, fray, fragment, break off, billiards, surpass, lawn tennis, convert, talk, dissipate, diminish, babble out, fragmentise



Copyright © 2024 Free-Translator.com