Definitions for broken

(terminate; "She interrupted her pregnancy"; "break a lucky streak"; "break the cycle of poverty")

(become separated into pieces or fragments; "The figurine broke"; "The freshly baked loaf fell apart")

(render inoperable or ineffective; "You broke the alarm clock when you took it apart!")

(ruin completely; "He busted my radio!")

(destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments; "He broke the glass plate"; "She broke the match")

(act in disregard of laws, rules, contracts, or promises; "offend all laws of humanity"; "violate the basic laws or human civilization"; "break a law"; "break a promise")

(move away or escape suddenly; "The horses broke from the stable"; "Three inmates broke jail"; "Nobody can break out

(scatter or part; "The clouds broke after the heavy downpour")

(force out or release suddenly and often violently something pent up; "break into tears"; "erupt in anger")

(prevent completion; "stop the project"; "break off the negotiations")

(enter someone's (virtual or real) property in an unauthorized manner, usually with the intent to steal or commit a violent act; "Someone broke in while I was on vacation"; "They broke into my car and stole my radio!"; "who broke into my account last night?")

(make submissive, obedient, or useful; "The horse was tough to break"; "I broke in the new intern")

(fail to agree with; be in violation of; as of rules or patterns; "This sentence violates the rules of syntax")

(surpass in excellence; "She bettered her own record"; "break a record")

(make known to the public information that was previously known only to a few people or that was meant to be kept a secret; "The auction house would not disclose the price at which the van Gogh had sold"; "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")

(come into being; "light broke over the horizon"; "Voices broke in the air")

(stop operating or functioning; "The engine finally went"; "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")

(interrupt a continued activity; "She had broken with the traditional patterns")

(make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing; "The ranks broke")

(curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves; "The surf broke")

(lessen in force or effect; "soften a shock"; "break a fall")

(be broken in; "If the new teacher won't break, we'll add some stress")

(come to an end; "The heat wave finally broke yesterday")

(vary or interrupt a uniformity or continuity; "The flat plain was broken by tall mesas")

(cause to give up a habit; "She finally broke herself of smoking cigarettes")

(give up; "break cigarette smoking")

(come forth or begin from a state of latency; "The first winter storm broke over New York")

(happen or take place; "Things have been breaking pretty well for us in the past few months")

(cause the failure or ruin of; "His peccadilloes finally broke his marriage"; "This play will either make or break the playwright")

(invalidate by judicial action; "The will was broken")

(discontinue an association or relation; go different ways; "The business partners broke over a tax question"; "The couple separated after 25 years of marriage"; "My friend and I split up")

(assign to a lower position; reduce in rank; "She was demoted because she always speaks up"; "He was broken down to Sergeant")

(reduce to bankruptcy; "My daughter's fancy wedding is going to break me!"; "The slump in the financial markets smashed him")

(change directions suddenly)

(emerge from the surface of a body of water; "The whales broke")

(break down, literally or metaphorically; "The wall collapsed"; "The business collapsed"; "The dam broke"; "The roof collapsed"; "The wall gave in"; "The roof finally gave under the weight of the ice")

(do a break dance; "Kids were break-dancing at the street corner")

(exchange for smaller units of money; "I had to break a $100 bill just to buy the candy")

(destroy the completeness of a set of related items; "The book dealer would not break the set")

(make the opening shot that scatters the balls)

(separate from a clinch, in boxing; "The referee broke the boxers")

(go to pieces; "The lawn mower finally broke"; "The gears wore out"; "The old chair finally fell apart completely")

(break a piece from a whole; "break a branch from a tree")

(become punctured or penetrated; "The skin broke")

(pierce or penetrate; "The blade broke her skin")

(be released or become known; of news; "News of her death broke in the morning")

(cease an action temporarily; "We pause for station identification"; "let's break for lunch")

(interrupt the flow of current in; "break a circuit")

(undergo breaking; "The simple vowels broke in many Germanic languages")

(find a flaw in; "break an alibi"; "break down a proof")

(find the solution or key to; "break the code")

(change suddenly from one tone quality or register to another; "Her voice broke to a whisper when she started to talk about her children")

(happen; "Report the news as it develops"; "These political movements recrudesce from time to time")

(become fractured; break or crack on the surface only; "The glass cracked when it was heated")

(crack; of the male voice in puberty; "his voice is breaking

(fall sharply; "stock prices broke")

(fracture a bone of; "I broke my foot while playing hockey")

(diminish or discontinue abruptly; "The patient's fever broke last night")

(weaken or destroy in spirit or body; "His resistance was broken"; "a man broken by the terrible experience of near-death")

(physically and forcibly separated into pieces or cracked or split; "a broken mirror"; "a broken tooth"; "a broken leg"; "his neck is broken")

(not continuous in space, time, or sequence or varying abruptly; "broken lines of defense"; "a broken cable transmission"; "broken sleep"; "tear off the stub above the broken line"; "a broken note"; "broken sobs")

(subdued or brought low in condition or status; "brought low"; "a broken man"; "his broken spirit")

((especially of promises or contracts) having been violated or disregarded; "broken (or unkept) promises"; "broken contracts")

(tamed or trained to obey; "a horse broken to the saddle"; "this old nag is well broken in")

(topographically very uneven; "broken terrain"; "rugged ground")

(imperfectly spoken or written; "broken English")

(thrown into a state of disarray or confusion; "troops fleeing in broken ranks"; "a confused mass of papers on the desk"; "the small disordered room"; "with everything so upset")

(weakened and infirm; "broken health resulting from alcoholism")

(destroyed financially; "the broken fortunes of the family")

(out of working order (`busted' is an informal substitute for `broken'); "a broken washing machine"; "the coke machine is broken"; "the coke machine is busted")

(discontinuous; "broken clouds"; "broken sunshine")

(lacking a part or parts; "a broken set of encyclopedia")