BREAK UP

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does break up mean? 

• BREAK UP (verb)
  The verb BREAK UP has 19 senses:

1. to cause to separate and go in different directions

2. discontinue an association or relation; go different ways

3. come apart

4. break violently or noisily; smash

5. make a break in

6. cause to go into a solution

7. suffer a nervous breakdown

8. take apart into its constituent pieces

9. destroy the completeness of a set of related items

10. set or keep apart

11. attack with or as if with a pickaxe of ice or rocky ground, for example

12. release ice

13. close at the end of a session

14. bring the association of to an end or cause to break up

15. come to an end

16. break or cause to break into pieces

17. cause to separate

18. separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts

19. laugh unrestrainedly

  Familiarity information: BREAK UP used as a verb is very familiar.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BREAK UP (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

To cause to separate and go in different directions

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

break up; dispel; disperse; dissipate; scatter

Context example:

She waved her hand and scattered the crowds

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

divide; separate (make a division or separation)

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

disband (cause to break up or cease to function)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Discontinue an association or relation; go different ways

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

break; break up; part; separate; split; split up

Context example:

My friend and I split up

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

give the axe; give the bounce; give the gate (terminate a relationship abruptly)

break apart; disunify (break up or separate)

disassociate; disjoint; dissociate; disunite; divorce (part; cease or break association with)

break with (end a relationship)

divorce; split up (get a divorce; formally terminate a marriage)

break away; secede; splinter (withdraw from an organization or communion)

break; break away (interrupt a continued activity)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

breakup (the termination or disintegration of a relationship (between persons or nations))

breakup (coming apart)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Come apart

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Context example:

the group broke up

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

part; separate; split (go one's own way; move apart)

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

disband; dissolve (stop functioning or cohering as a unit)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

breakup (coming apart)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Break violently or noisily; smash

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

break apart; break up; crash

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

disintegrate (break into parts or components or lose cohesion or unity)

Verb group:

crash (cause to crash)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 5

Meaning:

Make a break in

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

break up; cut off; disrupt; interrupt

Context example:

We interrupt the program for the following messages

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

break; break off; discontinue; stop (prevent completion)

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

put aside; put away (turn away from and put aside, perhaps temporarily)

take off; take time off (take time off from work; stop working temporarily)

stop; stop over (interrupt a trip)

block; jam (interfere with or prevent the reception of signals)

come in; inject; interject; interpose; put in; throw in (to insert between other elements)

heckle (challenge aggressively)

burst in on; burst upon (spring suddenly)

barge in; break in; butt in; chime in; chisel in; cut in; put in (break into a conversation)

break; intermit; pause (cease an action temporarily)

break (interrupt the flow of current in)

punctuate (interrupt periodically)

cut; cut off (cease, stop)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 6

Meaning:

Cause to go into a solution

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break up; dissolve; resolve

Context example:

The recipe says that we should dissolve a cup of sugar in two cups of water

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

change integrity (change in physical make-up)

Cause:

dissolve (pass into a solution)

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

melt; melt down; run (reduce or cause to be reduced from a solid to a liquid state, usually by heating)

cut (dissolve by breaking down the fat of)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 7

Meaning:

Suffer a nervous breakdown

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

break up; collapse; crack; crack up; crock up

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

get; have; suffer; sustain (undergo (as of injuries and illnesses))

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 8

Meaning:

Take apart into its constituent pieces

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

break apart; break up; disassemble; dismantle; take apart

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

destroy; destruct (do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of)

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

strike (disassemble a temporary structure, such as a tent or a theatrical set)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 9

Meaning:

Destroy the completeness of a set of related items

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

break; break up

Context example:

The book dealer would not break the set

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

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Verb group:

break (exchange for smaller units of money)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 10

Meaning:

Set or keep apart

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

break up; sever

Context example:

sever a relationship

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

disunite; divide; part; separate (force, take, or pull apart)

Verb group:

discerp; lop; sever (cut off from a whole)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 11

Meaning:

Attack with or as if with a pickaxe of ice or rocky ground, for example

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

break up; pick

Context example:

Pick open the ice

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

pierce (cut or make a way through)

"Break up" entails doing...:

chop; hack (cut with a hacking tool)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 12

Meaning:

Release ice

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

break up; calve

Context example:

The icebergs and glaciers calve

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

divide; part; separate (come apart)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 13

Meaning:

Close at the end of a session

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

adjourn; break up; recess

Context example:

The court adjourned

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

cease; end; finish; stop; terminate (have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 14

Meaning:

Bring the association of to an end or cause to break up

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break up; dissolve

Context example:

the judge dissolved the tobacco company

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

end; terminate (bring to an end or halt)

Verb group:

dismiss; dissolve (declare void)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 15

Meaning:

Come to an end

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break up; dissolve

Context example:

The tobacco monopoly broke up

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

end; terminate (bring to an end or halt)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 16

Meaning:

Break or cause to break into pieces

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break up; fragment; fragmentise; fragmentize

Context example:

The plate fragmented

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

break; come apart; fall apart; separate; split up (become separated into pieces or fragments)

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

brecciate (break into breccia)

grate; grind (make a grating or grinding sound by rubbing together)

crush (break into small pieces)

crumb (break into crumbs)

rag (break into lumps before sorting)

sliver; splinter (break up into splinters or slivers)

sunder (break apart or in two, using violence)

pound (break down and crush by beating, as with a pestle)

bray; comminute; crunch; grind; mash (reduce to small pieces or particles by pounding or abrading)

atomise; atomize (break up into small particles)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody of something

Sense 17

Meaning:

Cause to separate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break up; disperse; scatter

Context example:

disperse particles

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

change integrity (change in physical make-up)

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

backscatter (scatter (radiation) by the atoms of the medium through which it passes)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 18

Meaning:

Separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break down; break up; decompose

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

separate (divide into components or constituents)

Domain category:

chemical science; chemistry (the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions)

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

dissociate (to undergo a reversible or temporary breakdown of a molecule into simpler molecules or atoms)

crack (reduce (petroleum) to a simpler compound by cracking)

digest (soften or disintegrate by means of chemical action, heat, or moisture)

Sentence frames:

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

Sense 19

Meaning:

Laugh unrestrainedly

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

break up; crack up

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

express joy; express mirth; laugh (produce laughter)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

 Context examples 

A research team led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) found that sunlight changes oil into different compounds that dispersants cannot easily break up.

(Sunlight reduces effectiveness of dispersants used to clean up oil spills, National Science Foundation)

As the climate continues to warm, more and more ice shelves may become susceptible to flex, fracture and break up over the coming century.

(Surface lakes cause Antarctic ice shelves to ‘flex’, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Treatment includes medicines to ease pain and inflammation, break up clots and keep new clots from forming.

(Deep Vein Thrombosis, NIH)

Heparin may be injected into muscle or blood to prevent or break up blood clots.

(Heparin, NCI Dictionary)

“But, my dear, pray do not make any more matches; they are silly things, and break up one's family circle grievously.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The cliffs break up into isolated mesas in several places.

(What’s Eating at Pluto?, NASA)

I'm too busy to be worried with nonsense, and I think it's dreadful to break up families so.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“The council will not break up until the banquet,” remarked a gray-haired squire.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And now, having demonstrated this important conclusion so that it is clear to anyone, however prejudiced or obtuse, I am of opinion that we cannot do better than break up our camp and travel to westward until we find some means of ascent.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

If you were to break up with your steady (and I see nothing in your chart suggesting this, it is only an example), one of you could suddenly want to move out, causing a circumstance that you don’t anticipate.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)