Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BREAK, v.i.

1. To part; to separate; to divide in two; as, the ice breaks; a band breaks.
2. To burst; as, a storm or deluge breaks. – Dryden.
3. To burst by dashing against something; as, a wave breaks upon a rock. – Pope.
4. To open, as a tumor or aposteme. – Harvey.
5. To open, as the morning; to show the first light; to dawn. – Addison.
6. To burst forth; to utter or exclaim. – Shak.
7. To fail in trade or other occupation; to become bankrupt. – Pope.
8. To decline in health and strength; to begin to lose the natural vigor. – Swift.
9. To issue out with vehemence. – Pope.
10. To make way with violence or suddenness; to rush; often with a particle; as, to break into break in upon, as calamities; to break over, as a flood; to break out, as a fire; to break forth, as light or a sound.
11. To come to an explanation. I am to break with thee upon some affairs. – Shak. [I believe antiquated.]
12. To suffer an interruption of friendship; to fall out. Be not afraid to break with traitors. – B. Jonson.
13. To faint, flag, or pant. My soul breaketh, for longing to thy judgments. – Ps. cxix. To break away, to disengage itself from; to rush from; also, to dissolve itself or dissipate, as fog or clouds. To break forth, to issue out. To break from, to disengage from; to depart abruptly, or with vehemence. – Roscommon. To break in, to enter by force; to enter unexpectedly; to intrude. – Addison. To break loose, to get free by force; to escape from confinement by violence; to shake off restraint. – Milton. Tillotson. To break off, to part; to divide; also, to desist suddenly. – Bacon. To break off from, to part from with violence. – Shak. To break out, to issue forth; to discover itself by its effects, to arise or spring up; as, a fire breaks out; a sedition breaks out; a fever breaks out. – Dryden. Milton. #2. To appear in eruptions, as pustules; to have pustules, or an efflorescence on the skin, as a child breaks out. Hence we have freckle from the root of break; Welsh breç. #3. To throw off restraint, and become dissolute. – Dryden. To break up, to dissolve itself and separate; as, a company breaks up; a meeting breaks up; a fog breaks up; but more generally we say, fog, mist, clouds break away. To break with, to part in enmity; to cease to be friends; as, to break with a friend or companion. – Pope. This verb carries with it its primitive sense of straining, parting, severing, bursting, often with violence, with the consequential senses of injury, defect and infirmity.