break down
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See also: breakdown
English
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Verb
[edit]break down (third-person singular simple present breaks down, present participle breaking down, simple past broke down, past participle broken down or (informal) broke down)
- (intransitive) To stop functioning. (machine, computer, vehicle)
- I am afraid my computer will break down if I try to run it at too high a speed.
- (intransitive) To collapse, physically or in structure. (unexpectedly)
- Coordinate terms: break apart, break up, fall apart, fall down
- (transitive) To demolish, to pull down. (intentionally)
- Coordinate terms: break apart, break up, tear down
- (intransitive) To cease to function. (others)
- (intransitive) To fail, especially socially or for political reasons.
- Coordinate terms: break apart, break up
- Talks broke down between Prime Minister John Doe and the opposition party.
- Relations broke down between Greece and Turkey.
- (intransitive, idiomatic) To give in or give up: relent, concede, surrender.
- Is it worth taking it to a repair shop, or should I just break down and buy a new one?
- (ergative, figuratively) To render or to become unstable due to stress, to collapse physically or mentally.
- Near-synonym: come undone
- She is back to work now, after she broke down the other day.
- 1921, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:
- Sophia broke down here. Even at this moment she was subconsciously comparing her rendering of the part of the forlorn bride with Miss Marie Lohr's.
- 1936 Sept. 15, F. Scott Fitzgerald, letter to Beatrice Dance:
- As to Ernest... He is quite as nervously broken down as I am but it manifests itself in different ways. His inclination is towards megalomania and mine towards melancholy.
- (ergative, figuratively) To render or to become weak and ineffective.
- Coordinate terms: wear away, wear down
- His authority and influence over his coordinates broke down gradually.
- 2012 June 2, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Belgium”, in BBC Sport:
- Hodgson's approach may not illuminate proceedings in Poland and Ukraine but early evidence suggests they will be tough to break down.
- (ergative) To (cause to) decay, to decompose.
- Leaves and grass will break down into compost faster if you keep them moist.
- To separate into a number of parts.
- Near-synonyms: break apart, break up, tear down, tear up
- 1950 June, N. H. Bousfield, “Angers, a French Provincial Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 371:
- The goods station is a transhipment centre (centre de transbordement) at which loads made up at other centres are broken down and redespatched to destinations in the area.
- 1973 December 29, “Lesbian Questionnaire”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 28, page 1:
- Meetings began in June and shortly after the group of twelve women decided to break-down into two sub groups in order to examine the subject more efficiently.
- (ergative, figuratively) To divide into parts to give more details, to provide a more indepth analysis of.
- Near-synonym: analyze
- If you don't understand, ask him to break down the numbers for you.
- (ergative) To digest.
- Near-synonym: catabolize
- His stomach took a while to break down his food.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit](machine) to stop functioning
|
(computer) to stop functioning
|
(vehicle) to stop functioning
to collapse unexpectedly, physically or in structure
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to pull down intentionally
to cease to function; (others than above)
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to fail, especially socially or for political reasons
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to become unstable or collapse, mentally or otherwise
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to become weak and ineffective
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to decay
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to divide into parts for analysis
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to digest
See also
[edit]Noun
[edit]break down (plural break downs)
- Misspelling of breakdown.
See also
[edit]Categories:
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English phrasal verbs
- English phrasal verbs formed with "down"
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