BREAK OUT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does break out mean? 

• BREAK OUT (verb)
  The verb BREAK OUT has 5 senses:

1. start abruptly

2. begin suddenly and sometimes violently

3. move away or escape suddenly

4. take from stowage in preparation for use

5. become raw or open

  Familiarity information: BREAK OUT used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BREAK OUT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Start abruptly

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break out; erupt

Context example:

After 1989, peace broke out in the former East Bloc

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

begin; start (have a beginning, in a temporal, spatial, or evaluative sense)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Begin suddenly and sometimes violently

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

He broke out shouting

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

begin; start (have a beginning, in a temporal, spatial, or evaluative sense)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s VERB-ing

Sense 3

Meaning:

Move away or escape suddenly

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

break; break away; break out

Context example:

Nobody can break out--this prison is high security

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

break loose; escape; get away (run away from confinement)

Verb group:

break (make a rupture in the ranks of the enemy or one's own by quitting or fleeing)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

breakout (an escape from jail)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Take from stowage in preparation for use

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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

take out; unpack (remove from its packing)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Become raw or open

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break out; erupt; recrudesce

Context example:

Such boils tend to recrudesce

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

ail; pain; trouble (cause bodily suffering to and make sick or indisposed)

Sentence frames:

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

 Context examples 

Be patient. Uranus will get to you, and you will be ready to break out into a new career phase when he arrives.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Its stars are still embedded within their cloud but will someday break out to produce bubbles like those of W40.

('Space Butterfly' Is Home to Hundreds of Baby Stars, NASA)

But that Mycroft should break out in this erratic fashion!

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And you, Ambrose, that you should break out in such a way!

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We knew not what to expect of him next, what fearful thing, rising above the flesh, he might break out and do.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

To my astonishment, he did not break out into a fury, as I expected, but took the matter in simple seriousness.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

With four hundred miles of trail still between him and Dawson, he could ill afford to have madness break out among his dogs.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

"That's the fun of it," began Laurie, who had got a willful fit on him and was possessed to break out of bounds in some way.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“If we bide here, who knows that some fresh tumult may not break out.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Martin paused from his rhapsody, only to break out afresh.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)