Dictionary entry details
• BREAK DOWN (verb)
Meaning:
Make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features
Classified under:
Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting
Synonyms:
break down; dissect; analyze; analyse; take apart
Context examples:
analyze a specimen / analyze a sentence / analyze a chemical compound
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "break down"):
parse (analyze syntactically by assigning a constituent structure to (a sentence))
botanise; botanize (collect and study plants)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Meaning:
Make ineffective
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
Synonyms:
break down; crush
Context example:
Martin Luther King tried to break down racial discrimination
Hypernyms (to "break down" is one way to...):
alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Meaning:
Lose control of one's emotions
Classified under:
Verbs of feeling
Synonyms:
lose it; break down; snap
Context examples:
When she heard that she had not passed the exam, she lost it completely / When her baby died, she snapped
Hypernyms (to "break down" is one way to...):
act; behave; do (behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "break down"):
dissolve (lose control emotionally)
die (be brought to or as if to the point of death by an intense emotion such as embarrassment, amusement, or shame)
fall apart; go to pieces (lose one's emotional or mental composure)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sentence example:
Sam and Sue break down
Meaning:
Stop operating or functioning
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Synonyms:
go bad; conk out; give way; give out; fail; die; break down; break; go
Context examples:
The engine finally went / 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
Hypernyms (to "break down" is one way to...):
change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "break down"):
malfunction; misfunction (fail to function or function improperly)
misfire (fail to fire or detonate)
blow; blow out; burn out (melt, break, or become otherwise unusable)
crash; go down (stop operating)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Sentence example:
These cars won't break down
Meaning:
Separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Synonyms:
decompose; break down; break up
Hypernyms (to "break down" 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 down"):
digest (soften or disintegrate by means of chemical action, heat, or moisture)
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)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Meaning:
Fall apart
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Synonyms:
crumble; crumple; collapse; tumble; break down
Context examples:
the building crumbled after the explosion / Negotiations broke down
Hypernyms (to "break down" is one way to...):
change integrity (change in physical make-up)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Meaning:
Cause to fall or collapse
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "break down" is one way to...):
break; bust (ruin completely)
Cause:
break down; collapse; crumble; crumple; tumble (fall apart)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Sentence example:
They want to break down the doors
Meaning:
Collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Synonyms:
collapse; break down
Hypernyms (to "break down" is one way to...):
get; have; suffer; sustain (undergo (as of injuries and illnesses))
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "break down"):
fall over; go over (fall forward and down)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sentence example:
Sam and Sue break down
