bebreak

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English *bebreken, *bibreken, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old English bebrecan (“to break to pieces”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *bibrekaną (“to break, shatter”), equivalent to be- +‎ break. Cognate with Low German bebreken, German bebrechen.

Verb

bebreak (third-person singular simple present bebreaks, present participle bebreaking, simple past bebroke, past participle bebroken)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To break to pieces; break completely; shatter; destroy.
   • 1678, Nicolas Caussin, Hawkins, The Holy Court in Five Tomes:

     This miserable snare staied all his good purposes, and needs must bebreak them, to put this great Soul into full liberty.

   • 2008, Dr Yonah Alexander, Milton M. Hoenig, The New Iranian Leadership:

     Additionally all rulings in the revolutionary and clerical courts are final and cannot bebreak; overturned.

   • 2011, Marie Loughlin, Sandra Bell, Patricia Brace, The Broadview Anthology of Sixteenth-Century Poetry and Prose:

     Did in my hall in sight of least and most Bebreak his staff, my household office stay, Bad each make shift, and rode himself away.