BREAK DOWN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Break down

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/breɪk daʊn/ Listen

Break down

verb

Make ineffective. Synonym: crush.

Make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features. Synonyms: analyse, analyze, dissect, take apart. "Analyze a sentence" , "Analyze a chemical compound"

Lose control of one's emotions. Synonyms: lose it, snap. "When her baby died, she snapped"

Stop operating or functioning. Synonyms: break, conk out, die, fail, give out, give way, go, go bad. "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"

Fall apart. Synonyms: collapse, crumble, crumple, tumble. "Negotiations broke down"

Cause to fall or collapse.

Separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts. Synonyms: break up, decompose.

Collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack. Synonym: collapse.

See more definitions of Break down...

See images of 'Break down'

Antonyms of 'Break down'

Etymology of 'Break down'

Share |

"Break down" Quotes from Famous Books

... up, and that Mr. Gladstone had been beaten by the sheer brutality of Obstruction. But still hope springs eternal in the Irish breast, and there was still the lingering feeling that Mr. Gladstone would make a further and more desperate effort to break down one of the most shameless crusades of Obstruction on which a great party had ever entered. Indeed, Mr. Gladstone himself was responsible for a rise in the temperature of his own party on the very evening of that fateful and fatal Friday morning, ...

— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor

... and my son swim in his own blood! You infect me like an incurable pest in which I shall groan away the rest of my life. I will cure myself! Do you understand? (Pressing the revolver on her.) This is your physic. Don't break down; don't kneel! You yourself shall apply it. You or I—which is the weaker? (Lulu, her strength threatening to desert her, has sunk down on the couch. Turning the revolver ...

— Erdgeist (Earth-Spirit) - A Tragedy in Four Acts • Frank Wedekind

... lectures must be incorrect, because I have been attempting to prove that they do exist, and I take it that there is abundant evidence that they do exist; so far, therefore, the hypothesis does not break down. ...

— A Critical Examination Of The Position Of Mr. Darwin's Work, "On The Origin Of Species," In Relation To The Complete Theory Of The Causes Of The Phenomena Of Organic Nature • Thomas H. Huxley

... did not break down Mr. Slope's spirit, because he had other hopes. But, alas, at last there came to him a note from his friend Sir Nicholas, informing him that the deanship was disposed of. Let us give Mr. Slope his due. He did not lie prostrate under ...

— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope

... now saw that her second fire was beginning to catch. She must burn away this inside door, or else Jimmy Lawton would be caught in a trap. The door was chained and would not be easy to break down. ...

— Madge Morton's Secret • Amy D. V. Chalmers

More quotes...