tobreak

English

Alternative forms

• to-break, to break

Etymology

From Middle English tobreken (“to break apart, break in pieces, shatter”), from Old English tōbrecan, tebrecan (“to break in pieces, break apart”), from Proto-West Germanic *tebrekan, from Proto-Germanic *tebrekaną (“to break apart”), equivalent to to- (“apart, in pieces”) +‎ break. Cognate with Old Saxon tebrekan (“to break apart”), Middle Dutch tebreken (“to break apart, shatter”), German zerbrechen (“to break apart, shatter, smash”).

Verb

tobreak (third-person singular simple present tobreaks, present participle tobreaking, simple past tobroke, past participle tobroken)

1. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To break completely; crush.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 9:53:

     And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all tobrake his skull.

2. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To break apart; break in pieces.
   • 1387–1400, Geoffrey Chaucer, “(please specify the story)”, in The Canterbury Tales, [Westminster: William Caxton, published 1478], →OCLC; republished in [William Thynne], editor, The Workes of Geffray Chaucer Newlye Printed, […], [London]: […] [Richard Grafton for] Iohn Reynes […], 1542, →OCLC:

     And in the floor, with nose and mouth tobroke, They walwe as doon two pigges in a poke

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)