Break \Break\, v. i.

1. To come apart or divide into two or more pieces, usually with suddenness and violence; to part; to burst asunder.

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

Else the bottle break, and the wine runneth out. --Math. ix. 17.

3. To burst forth; to make its way; to come to view; to appear; to dawn.

The day begins to break, and night is fled. --Shak.

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

4. To burst forth violently, as a storm.

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

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

At length the darkness begins to break. --Macaulay.

6. To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.

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

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

8. To fall in business; to become bankrupt.

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

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

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.

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

Note: With prepositions or adverbs:

To break away, to disengage one's self abruptly; to come or go away against resistance.

Fear me not, man; I will not break away. --Shak.

To break down.
   (a) To come down by breaking; as, the coach broke down.
   (b) To fail in any undertaking.

He had broken down almost at the outset. --Thackeray.

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;

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

To break from, to go away from abruptly.

This radiant from the circling crowd he broke. --Dryden.

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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)