break

«break» in Mova's school dictionary: to make something come apart into pieces, so it can no… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (break, breaks, broke, broken, breaking); noun (a break, breaks)

meaning for a pupil

1) To break is to make something come apart into pieces, so it can no longer be used. tree →

2) To break is to stop working: «The TV broke». tree →

3) To break a rule or a promise is to not keep it. tree →

4) A break is a short rest from work or school: «morning break». tree →

5) To break a record is to do better than anyone before. tree →

6) To break out is to start suddenly, as fire, fighting or trouble does. tree →

sense in the lessons

to spoil things, so they no longer count; a break is a rest time at school; to break a number apart is to split it into parts (14 = 10 + 4); phrases: «break into pieces», «break down», «break a promise», «take a break», «break apart»

examples

• Anna breaks 5 cookies. tree →
• 16 pencils broke. tree →
• Of 24 glasses, 3 are broken. How many are not broken? tree →
• We play football at morning break. tree →
• Ben broke his arm when he fell off his bike. tree →
• Never break a promise to a friend. tree →
• Break 15 into 10 and 5 to add it more easily. tree →
• She broke the school record for the long jump. tree →
• The flames were breaking out from below. tree →

note

Past: broke; past participle: broken. «breaks N» takes N away from the good things. Trap: breaking one thing into pieces can make more pieces, not fewer. Safety: tell an adult about broken glass; do not pick it up.

In the corpora

• A homeless person has nowhere safe to live, often because of losing a job, a family breaking up or illness.
• Adults sometimes switch off heavy news to take a break from it, because too much bad news makes anyone gloomy.
• Saving means putting money aside now for something bigger later, or for emergencies like a broken boiler.
• A learner driver has L plates and a grown-up beside them; check before you accuse anyone of breaking the law.
• "Musical differences" and "taking a break" mean only what was said; nobody outside the band knows the rest.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «break» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.