BREAK LOOSE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does break loose mean? 

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

1. be unleashed; emerge with violence or noise

2. run away from confinement

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• BREAK LOOSE (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be unleashed; emerge with violence or noise

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break loose; burst forth; explode

Context example:

His anger exploded

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

change state; turn (undergo a transformation or a change of position or action)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Run away from confinement

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

break loose; escape; get away

Context example:

The convicted murderer escaped from a high security prison

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

flee; fly; take flight (run away quickly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "break loose"):

break; break away; break out (move away or escape suddenly)

escape from; shake; shake off; throw off (get rid of)

bilk; elude; evade (escape, either physically or mentally)

exfiltrate (escape furtively, as from an area under enemy control)

slip (move smoothly and easily)

run away (escape from the control of)

escape; get away (remove oneself from a familiar environment, usually for pleasure or diversion)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

 Context examples 

"If I didn't bowl up, I'd break loose an' burn down the shebang. My bowlin' up is all that saves 'em, I can tell you that."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He held his sword drawn in his hand to defend himself, if I should happen to break loose; it was almost three inches long; the hilt and scabbard were gold enriched with diamonds.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

A deep vein thrombosis can break loose and cause a serious problem in the lung, called a pulmonary embolism.

(Deep Vein Thrombosis, NIH)

In vain they strove to break loose.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He had expected all hell to break loose, and here it was.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But, when she suffered it to break loose, it was only for a moment.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The Yukon was straining to break loose the ice that bound it down.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

“Expect all hell to break loose,” he cautioned me, “but don’t mind it. Yours is to do your own work and to have Cooky stand by the fore-sheet.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

When the workmen found it was impossible for me to break loose, they cut all the strings that bound me; whereupon I rose up, with as melancholy a disposition as ever I had in my life.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Sometimes, too, when he frightens me, it seems that he is a bulldog I have taken for a plaything, like some of the 'frat' girls, and he is tugging hard, and showing his teeth, and threatening to break loose.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)