BREAK INTO

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does break into mean? 

• BREAK INTO (verb)
  The verb BREAK INTO has 2 senses:

1. express or utter spontaneously

2. change pace

  Familiarity information: BREAK INTO used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BREAK INTO (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Express or utter spontaneously

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Context example:

break into tears

Hypernyms (to "break into" is one way to...):

emit; let loose; let out; utter (express audibly; utter sounds (not necessarily words))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Change pace

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The horse broke into a gallop

Hypernyms (to "break into" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

“Did she not break into lamentation and woe that a brother should so demean himself?”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is unusual to break into a lady's room!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

When big pollen particles break into fine ones, they can take up water vapor in the air to promote the formation of clouds, potentially altering weather systems as a result.

(Estimating how pollen particles in the atmosphere influence climate, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

It will be my last, I think, for when I come back, I shall break into the magazines.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Dutch Sam thrust the brandy-bladder between his teeth, while Mendoza shook him savagely and howled insults in his ear, but neither the spirits nor the sense of injury could break into that serene insensibility.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Is it not extraordinary that a burglar—and a burglar who had had some previous experience—should deliberately break into a house at a time when he could see from the lights that two of the family were still afoot?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At times, too, when the wild fit was upon her, she would break into pertness and rebel openly against Alleyne's gentle firmness.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You had better not come with us in case there should be any difficulty; for under the circumstances it wouldn't seem so bad for us to break into an empty house.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Yet he would jog quietly on with his teachings, taking no heed to her mutiny, until suddenly she would be conquered by his patience, and break into self-revilings a hundred times stronger than her fault demanded.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I could have sworn I heard the owl-eyed man break into ghostly laughter.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)