To break down

Break Break (br[=a]k), v. i. 1. To come apart or divide into two or more pieces, usually with suddenness and violence; to part; to burst asunder. [1913 Webster]

2. To open spontaneously, or by pressure from within, as a bubble, a tumor, a seed vessel, a bag. [1913 Webster]

Else the bottle break, and the wine runneth out. --Math. ix. 17. [1913 Webster]

3. To burst forth; to make its way; to come to view; to appear; to dawn. [1913 Webster]

The day begins to break, and night is fled. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

And from the turf a fountain broke, and gurgled at our feet. --Wordsworth. [1913 Webster]

4. To burst forth violently, as a storm. [1913 Webster]

The clouds are still above; and, while I speak, A second deluge o'er our head may break. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

5. To open up; to be scattered; to be dissipated; as, the clouds are breaking. [1913 Webster]

At length the darkness begins to break. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]

6. To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength. [1913 Webster]

See how the dean begins to break; Poor gentleman! he droops apace. --Swift. [1913 Webster]

7. To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief; as, my heart is breaking. [1913 Webster]

8. To fall in business; to become bankrupt. [1913 Webster]

He that puts all upon adventures doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty. --Bacn. [1913 Webster]

9. To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait; as, to break into a run or gallop. [1913 Webster]

10. To fail in musical quality; as, a singer's voice breaks when it is strained beyond its compass and a tone or note is not completed, but degenerates into an unmusical sound instead. Also, to change in tone, as a boy's voice at puberty. [1913 Webster]

11. To fall out; to terminate friendship. [1913 Webster]

To break upon the score of danger or expense is to be mean and narrow-spirited. --Collier. [1913 Webster]

Note: With prepositions or adverbs: [1913 Webster]

{To break away}, to disengage one's self abruptly; to come or go away against resistance. [1913 Webster]

Fear me not, man; I will not break away. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

{To break down}. (a) To come down by breaking; as, the coach broke down. (b) To fail in any undertaking; to halt before successful completion; as, the negotiations broke down due to irreconcilable demands. (c) To cease functioning or to malfunction; as, the car broke down in the middle of the highway. [1913 Webster +PJC]

He had broken down almost at the outset. --Thackeray. [1913 Webster]

{To break forth}, to issue; to come out suddenly, as sound, light, etc. ``Then shall thy light break forth as the morning.'' --Isa. lviii. 8; [1913 Webster]

Note: often with into in expressing or giving vent to one's feelings. ``Break forth into singing, ye mountains.'' --Isa. xliv. 23. [1913 Webster]

{To break from}, to go away from abruptly. [1913 Webster]

This radiant from the circling crowd he broke. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]

{To break into}, to enter by breaking; as, to break into a house.

{To break in upon}, to enter or approach violently or unexpectedly. ``This, this is he; softly awhile; let us not break in upon him.'' --Milton.

{To break loose}. (a) To extricate one's self forcibly. ``Who would not, finding way, break loose from hell?'' --Milton. (b) To cast off restraint, as of morals or propriety.

{To break off}. (a) To become separated by rupture, or with suddenness and violence. (b) To desist or cease suddenly. ``Nay, forward, old man; do not break off so.'' --Shak.

{To break off from}, to desist from; to abandon, as a habit.

{To break out}. (a) To burst forth; to escape from restraint; to appear suddenly, as a fire or an epidemic. ``For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and stream in the desert.'' --Isa. xxxv. 6 (b) To show itself in cutaneous eruptions; -- said of a disease. (c) To have a rash or eruption on the akin; -- said of a patient.

{To break over}, to overflow; to go beyond limits.

{To break up}. (a) To become separated into parts or fragments; as, the ice break up in the rivers; the wreck will break up in the next storm. (b) To disperse. ``The company breaks up.'' --I. Watts.

{To break upon}, to discover itself suddenly to; to dawn upon.

{To break with}. (a) To fall out; to sever one's relations with; to part friendship. ``It can not be the Volsces dare break with us.'' --Shak. ``If she did not intend to marry Clive, she should have broken with him altogether.'' --Thackeray. (b) To come to an explanation; to enter into conference; to speak. [Obs.] ``I will break with her and with her father.'' --Shak. [1913 Webster]