breaktime

English

Alternative forms

• break time (more common in UK English)

Etymology

From break +‎ time.

Noun

breaktime (countable and uncountable, plural breaktimes)

1. (US) A break for a worker or workers that splits a period of work.
   • 2007, National Labor Relations Board (U.S.) (editor), Decisions and Orders of the National Labor Relations Board, Volume 346: November 28, 2005—May 8, 2006, page 39,

     Supervisor Laws asserts that when the incident occurred it was not the breaktime of either Tingler or Parnell. (4:760,789.)

2. (UK) A break for schoolchildren between lessons.
   • 1992, David Freer, Towards Open Schools: Possibilities and Realities for Non-Racial Education in South Africa‎^[1], page 130:

     It tends to evaluate the liking for, and the acceptance of, the pupils in their class as peers, rather than asking children to specifically select their friends, breaktime and home companions.

   • 2006, Brigette Bishop, Promoting Friendships in the Playground: A Peer Befriending Programme for Primary Schools‎^[2], page 4:

     The significance of breaktimes as a mechanism for children to develop social competence is highlighted in much of Peter Blatchford's work.

   • 2010, Karen Littleton, Clare Wood, Judith Kleine Staarman, International Handbook of Psychology in Education, page 231:

     Designed by architects working for Norman Foster, it had no playground and no morning breaktime.

Synonyms

• (break during school): lunchtime (hyponym), playtime, recess

Translations

break that splits a period of work.

• Romanian: pauză (ro)
• Tagalog: tayong
• Turkish: ara (tr), paydos (tr)

break between lessons.

• Romanian: pauză (ro)
• Turkish: teneffüs (tr)