ALL meanings of break up
break up
B b - phrasal verb break up When something breaks up or when you break it up, it separates or is divided into several smaller parts. 3
- phrasal verb break up If you break up with your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife, your relationship with that person ends. 3
- phrasal verb break up If a marriage breaks up or if someone breaks it up, the marriage ends and the partners separate. 3
- phrasal verb break up When a meeting or gathering breaks up or when someone breaks it up, it is brought to an end and the people involved in it leave. 3
- phrasal verb break up When a school or the pupils in it break up, the school term ends and the pupils start their holidays. 3
- phrasal verb break up If you say that someone is breaking up when you are speaking to them on a mobile telephone, you mean that you can only hear parts of what they are saying because the signal is interrupted. 3
- phrasal verb break up If something breaks someone up, it causes them to lose control and begin to laugh or cry. 3
- countable noun break up The break-up of a marriage, relationship, or association is the act of it finishing or coming to an end because the people involved decide that it is not working successfully. 3
- countable noun break up The break-up of an organization or a country is the act of it separating or dividing into several parts. 3
- verb break up to separate or cause to separate 3
- verb break up to put an end to (a relationship) or (of a relationship) to come to an end 3
- verb break up to dissolve or cause to dissolve; disrupt or be disrupted 3
- verb break up (of a school) to close for the holidays 3
- verb break up (of a person making a telephone call) to be inaudible at times, owing to variations in the signal 3
- verb break up to lose or cause to lose control of the emotions 3
- verb break up to be or cause to be overcome with laughter 3
- noun break up a separation or disintegration 3
- noun break up in the Canadian north, the breaking up of the ice on a body of water that marks the beginning of spring 3
- noun break up this season 3
- noun break up separation or disintegration 3
- noun break up to separate; disperse 3
- noun break up to take apart; dismantle and scrap 3
- noun break up to put a stop to 3
- noun break up to end a relationship 3
- noun break up to distress or upset greatly 3
- noun break up to laugh or make laugh uncontrollably 3
- verb with object break up to smash, split, or divide into parts violently; reduce to pieces or fragments: He broke a vase. 1
- verb with object break up to infringe, ignore, or act contrary to (a law, rule, promise, etc.): She broke her promise. 1
- verb with object break up to dissolve or annul (often followed by off): to break off friendly relations with another country. 1
- verb with object break up to fracture a bone of (some part of the body): He broke his leg. 1
- verb with object break up to lacerate; wound: to break the skin. 1
- verb with object break up to destroy or interrupt the regularity, uniformity, continuity, or arrangement of; interrupt: The bleating of a foghorn broke the silence. The troops broke formation. 1
- verb with object break up to put an end to; overcome; stop: His touchdown run broke the tie. She found it hard to break the cigarette habit. 1
- verb with object break up to discover the system, key, method, etc., for decoding or deciphering (a cryptogram), especially by the methods of cryptanalysis. 1
- verb with object break up to remove a part from (a set or collection): She had to break the set to sell me the two red ones I wanted. 1
- verb with object break up to exchange for or divide into smaller units or components: She broke a dollar bill into change. The prism broke the light into all the colors of the rainbow. 1
- verb with object break up to make a way through; penetrate: The stone broke the surface of the water. 1
- verb with object break up Law. to open or force one's way into (a dwelling, store, etc.). to contest (a will) successfully by judicial action. 1
- verb with object break up to make one's way out of, especially by force: to break jail. 1
- verb with object break up to better (a given score or record): He never broke 200 in bowling or 80 in golf. 1
- verb with object break up to disclose or divulge personally in speech or writing: He broke the good news to her at dinner. 1
- verb with object break up to solve: The police needed only a week to break that case. 1
- verb with object break up to rupture (a blood vessel): She almost broke a blood vessel from laughing so hard. 1
- verb with object break up to disable or destroy by or as if by shattering or crushing: to break a watch. 1
- verb with object break up to cause (a blister, boil, or the like) to burst, as by puncturing: She broke the blister with a needle. 1
- verb with object break up to ruin financially; make bankrupt: They threatened to break him if he didn't stop discounting their products. 1
- verb with object break up to overcome or wear down the spirit, strength, or resistance of; to cause to yield, especially under pressure, torture, or the like: They broke him by the threat of blackmail. 1
- verb with object break up to dismiss or reduce in rank. 1
- verb with object break up to impair or weaken the power, effect, or intensity of: His arm broke the blow. 1
- verb with object break up to train to obedience; tame: to break a horse. 1