Dictionary entry details
• BREAK UP (verb)
Meaning:
To cause to separate and go in different directions
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Synonyms:
scatter; dissipate; break up; disperse; dispel
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
Meaning:
Discontinue an association or relation; go different ways
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Synonyms:
break up; part; split; split up; separate; break
Context examples:
The business partners broke over a tax question / The couple separated after 25 years of marriage / 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
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
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)
Sentence frames:
Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP
Meaning:
Make a break in
Classified under:
Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing
Synonyms:
interrupt; cut off; disrupt; break up
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"):
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)
put aside; put away (turn away from and put aside, perhaps 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
Meaning:
Cause to go into a solution
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Synonyms:
dissolve; break up; 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"):
cut (dissolve by breaking down the fat of)
melt; melt down; run (reduce or cause to be reduced from a solid to a liquid state, usually by heating)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Meaning:
Suffer a nervous breakdown
Classified under:
Verbs of feeling
Synonyms:
crock up; crack up; collapse; break up; crack
Hypernyms (to "break up" is one way to...):
get; have; suffer; sustain (undergo (as of injuries and illnesses))
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Meaning:
Take apart into its constituent pieces
Classified under:
Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing
Synonyms:
take apart; disassemble; break apart; dismantle; break up
Hypernyms (to "break up" is one way to...):
destroy; destruct (do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Meaning:
Destroy the completeness of a set of related items
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Synonyms:
break up; break
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)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Meaning:
Set or keep apart
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Synonyms:
sever; break up
Context example:
sever a relationship
Hypernyms (to "break up" is one way to...):
disunite; divide; part; separate (force, take, or pull apart)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
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:
pick; break up
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
Meaning:
Release ice
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Synonyms:
calve; break up
Context example:
The icebergs and glaciers calve
Hypernyms (to "break up" is one way to...):
divide; part; separate (come apart)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Meaning:
Close at the end of a session
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Synonyms:
adjourn; recess; break up
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
Meaning:
Bring the association of to an end or cause to break up
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Synonyms:
dissolve; break up
Context examples:
The decree officially dissolved the marriage / the judge dissolved the tobacco company
Hypernyms (to "break up" is one way to...):
end; terminate (bring to an end or halt)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something
Meaning:
Come to an end
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Synonyms:
dissolve; break up
Context examples:
Their marriage dissolved / 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
Meaning:
Break or cause to break into pieces
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Synonyms:
fragment; fragmentise; fragmentize; break up
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"):
grate; grind (make a grating or grinding sound by rubbing together)
crush (break into small pieces)
brecciate (break into breccia)
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
Meaning:
Cause to separate
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Synonyms:
disperse; scatter; break up
Context examples:
break up kidney stones / 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
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 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"):
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:
Laugh unrestrainedly
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
Synonyms:
crack up; break up
Hypernyms (to "break up" is one way to...):
express joy; express mirth; laugh (produce laughter)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
