(v. t.) To strain apart; to sever by fracture; to divide with violence; as, to break a rope or chain; to break a seal; to break an axle; to break rocks or coal; to break a lock.
(v. t.) To lay open as by breaking; to divide; as, to break a package of goods.
(v. t.) To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate.
(v. t.) To infringe or violate, as an obligation, law, or promise.
(v. t.) To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate; as, to break silence; to break one's sleep; to break one's journey.
(v. t.) To destroy the completeness of; to remove a part from; as, to break a set.
(v. t.) To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce; as, the cavalry were not able to break the British squares.
(v. t.) To shatter to pieces; to reduce to fragments.
(v. t.) To exchange for other money or currency of smaller denomination; as, to break a five dollar bill.
(v. t.) To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of; as, to break flax.
(v. t.) To weaken or impair, as health, spirit, or mind.
(v. t.) To diminish the force of; to lessen the shock of, as a fall or blow.
(v. t.) To impart, as news or information; to broach; -- with to, and often with a modified word implying some reserve; as, to break the news gently to the widow; to break a purpose cautiously to a friend.
(v. t.) To tame; to reduce to subjection; to make tractable; to discipline; as, to break a horse to the harness or saddle.
(v. t.) To destroy the financial credit of; to make bankrupt; to ruin.
(v. t.) To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss.
(v. i.) To come apart or divide into two or more pieces, usually with suddenness and violence; to part; to burst asunder.
(v. i.) To open spontaneously, or by pressure from within, as a bubble, a tumor, a seed vessel, a bag.
(v. i.) To burst forth; to make its way; to come to view; to appear; to dawn.
(v. i.) To burst forth violently, as a storm.
(v. i.) To open up; to be scattered; to be dissipated; as, the clouds are breaking.
(v. i.) To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.
(v. i.) To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief; as, my heart is breaking.
(v. i.) To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait; as, to break into a run or gallop.
(v. i.) To fail in musical quality; as, a singer's voice breaks when it is strained beyond its compass and a tone or note is not completed, but degenerates into an unmusical sound instead. Also, to change in tone, as a boy's voice at puberty.
(v. i.) To fall out; to terminate friendship.
(v. t.) An opening made by fracture or disruption.
(v. t.) An interruption of continuity; change of direction; as, a break in a wall; a break in the deck of a ship.
(v. t.) A projection or recess from the face of a building.
(v. t.) An opening or displacement in the circuit, interrupting the electrical current.
(v. t.) An interruption; a pause; as, a break in friendship; a break in the conversation.
(v. t.) An interruption in continuity in writing or printing, as where there is an omission, an unfilled line, etc.
(v. t.) The first appearing, as of light in the morning; the dawn; as, the break of day; the break of dawn.
(v. t.) A large four-wheeled carriage, having a straight body and calash top, with the driver's seat in front and the footman's behind.
(v. t.) A device for checking motion, or for measuring friction. See Brake, n. 9 & 10.
(n.) See Commutator.
Example Sentences:
(1) Lucy and Ed will combine coverage of hard and breaking news with a commitment to investigative journalism, which their track record so clearly demonstrates”.
(2) They spend about 4.3 minutes of each working hour on a smoking break, the study shows.
(3) The mechanism by which pertussis toxin (PT) breaks the unresponsiveness of delayed-type hypersensitivity (DTH) to sheep red blood cells (SRBC) was examined in B10 mice.
(4) After absorption of labeled glucose, two pools of trehalose are found in dormant spores, one of which is extractable without breaking the spores, and the other, only after the spores are disintegrated.
(5) The following possible explanations were discussed: a) the tested psychotropic drugs block prostaglandin receptors in the stomach; b) the test substances react with prostaglandin in the nutritive solution; c) the substances stimulate metabolic processes in the stomach wall that break down prostaglandin.
(6) The ability of ligand to stimulate its own synthesis and that of its receptor suggests the presence of an autocrine positive feedback loop, however we were unable to break this loop in the breast cancer cells by antibodies that blocked the interaction of TGF alpha with the EGF receptor.
(7) Neutral sucrose density sedimentation patterns indicate that neutron-induced double strand-breaks sometimes occur in clusters of more than 100 in the same phage and that the effeciency with which double strand-breaks form is about 50 times that of gamma-induced double strand-breaks.
(8) Possible explanations of the clinical gains include 1) psychological encouragement, 2) improvements of mechanical efficiency, 3) restoration of cardiovascular fitness, thus breaking a vicous circle of dyspnoea, inactivity and worsening dyspnoea, 4) strengthening of the body musculature, thus reducing the proportion of anaerobic work, 5) biochemical adaptations reducing glycolysis in the active tissues, and 6) indirect responses to such factors as group support, with advice on smoking habits, breathing patterns and bronchial hygiene.
(9) At high luminances, the temporal, but not spatial, properties of this mechanism break down in a manner which had not been studied.Low-frequency inhibitory processThis process is manifest as a decrease in sensitivity from that of the simple excitatory process.
(10) These experiments represent the first occasion that the sequence specificity of a DNA damaging agent, which causes only double-strand breaks, has been determined to the exact base-pair in intact cells.
(11) The OPL first appears as a thin, discontinuous break in the cytoblast layer that is frequently interrupted by the profiles of migrating neuro- and glioblasts.
(12) Celebrity woodlanders Tax breaks and tree-hugging already draw the wealthy and well-known to buy British forests.
(13) But we need politicians to break out of historical routines.
(14) For Burroughs, who had been publishing ground-breaking books for 20 years without much appreciable financial return, it was association with fame and the music industry, as well as the possible benefits: a wider readership, film hook-ups and more money.
(15) Once you've invested many years in a career, figuring out how to take time out and then return to a role that's comparable to the one you left (or as comparable as you want it to be) requires more than confidence and enthusiasm - employers need to actively acknowledge the benefits of such breaks and be more receptive to those seeking to return”.
(16) A dose-dependent increase in chromatid lesions, i.e., achromatic lesions, chromatid breaks, chromatid deletions and triradial or quandriradial chromosomal exchange fiqures, was found.
(17) From the stress-strain curve the following values were selected: strain, stress, and slope at 80 mmHg equivalent pressure (1 mmHg = 133.3 Pa); maximum stress, strain, and slope; and breaking stress, strain, and slope if the sample broke.
(18) Everyone worked hard, but it is fair to pick out Willian because of his work-rate, quality on the ball, participation in the first goal and quality of the second.” It had been Willian’s fizzed cross, 11 minutes before the break, which Dragovic had nodded inadvertently inside Shovkovskiy’s near post to earn the hosts their initial lead.
(19) The possibility that mammalian DNA topoisomerase II is an intracellular target which mediates drug-induced DNA breaks is supported by the following studies using 4'-(9-acridinylamino)methane-sulfon-m-anisidide (m-AMSA): (a) a single m-AMSA-dependent DNA cleavage activity copurified with calf thymus DNA topoisomerase II activity at all chromatographic steps of the enzyme purification; (b) m-AMSA-induced DNA cleavage by this purified activity resulted in the covalent attachment of protein to the 5'-ends of the DNA via a tyrosyl phosphate bond.
(20) The authorities had said they used water cannon, teargas and smoke grenades to break up the protest.
Snap
Definition:
(n.) To break at once; to break short, as substances that are brittle.
(n.) To strike, to hit, or to shut, with a sharp sound.
(n.) To bite or seize suddenly, especially with the teeth.
(n.) To break upon suddenly with sharp, angry words; to treat snappishly; -- usually with up.
(n.) To crack; to cause to make a sharp, cracking noise; as, to snap a whip.
(n.) To project with a snap.
(v. i.) To break short, or at once; to part asunder suddenly; as, a mast snaps; a needle snaps.
(v. i.) To give forth, or produce, a sharp, cracking noise; to crack; as, blazing firewood snaps.
(v. i.) To make an effort to bite; to aim to seize with the teeth; to catch eagerly (at anything); -- often with at; as, a dog snapsat a passenger; a fish snaps at the bait.
(v. i.) To utter sharp, harsh, angry words; -- often with at; as, to snap at a child.
(v. i.) To miss fire; as, the gun snapped.
(v. t.) A sudden breaking or rupture of any substance.
(v. t.) A sudden, eager bite; a sudden seizing, or effort to seize, as with the teeth.
(v. t.) A sudden, sharp motion or blow, as with the finger sprung from the thumb, or the thumb from the finger.
(v. t.) A sharp, abrupt sound, as that made by the crack of a whip; as, the snap of the trigger of a gun.
(v. t.) A greedy fellow.
(v. t.) That which is, or may be, snapped up; something bitten off, seized, or obtained by a single quick movement; hence, a bite, morsel, or fragment; a scrap.
(v. t.) A sudden severe interval or spell; -- applied to the weather; as, a cold snap.
(v. t.) A small catch or fastening held or closed by means of a spring, or one which closes with a snapping sound, as the catch of a bracelet, necklace, clasp of a book, etc.
(v. t.) A snap beetle.
(v. t.) A thin, crisp cake, usually small, and flavored with ginger; -- used chiefly in the plural.
(v. t.) Briskness; vigor; energy; decision.
(v. t.) Any circumstance out of which money may be made or an advantage gained.
Example Sentences:
(1) To evaluate the relationship between the motion pattern and degree of organic change of the anterior mitral leaflet (AML) and the features of the mitral component of the first heart sound (M1) or the opening snap (OS), 37 patients with mitral stenosis (MS) were studied by auscultation, phonocardiography and echocardiography.
(2) A letter Acosta received warned her of a Snap cut of $11 for each family member in November.
(3) The San Antonio Food Bank says donations are up 16% But because of the cuts to Snap the supplies disappear faster.
(4) Acquaintance with a teenaged girl of roughly qualifying age is not essential, but probably helpful, when it comes to appreciating the degree to which Uncle Rupert's views on women, as still reflected in Page 3 , have not progressed since his executives started perving over snaps of their favourite teens.
(5) It's easy to express rage over the Newtown shooting because so few of us bear any responsibility for it and - although we can take steps to minimize the impact and make similar attacks less likely - there is ultimately little we can do to stop psychotic individuals from snapping.
(6) The sensitivity and overall agreement of both the SNAP and Campyslide tests were 100% in comparison with standard culture and identification tests.
(7) Hours after the attack ended, US troops with sniffer dogs checked the building for undetonated explosives, as security officials snapped pictures of the bodies and discussed the support the fighters must have received.
(8) We replicated DNA fingerprints of snapping turtles (Chelydra serpentina) and hypervariable restriction fragments of red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) to estimate the between-blot and between-lane components of variance in molecular weights of restriction fragments.
(9) Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong called the snap election more than a year early in the hope of riding a wave of national pride following the country’s recent 50th anniversary.
(10) In superfused precontracted strips of rabbit aorta, methylene blue (MeB) or pyocyanin (Pyo, 1-hydroxy-5-methyl phenazinum betaine) at concentrations of 1-10 microM inhibited relaxations induced by endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF), glyceryl trinitrate (GTN), S-nitroso-N-acetyl-penicillamine (SNAP) or 3-morpholino-sydnonimine (SIN-1).
(11) You will have to offer leadership and a sense of belonging to the civil service's lowly clerks and frontline staff in the Department for Work and Pensions, struggling not just with Iain Duncan Smith's fantasies of benefit rationalisation, but sharp contractors snapping at their heels.
(12) Scotland’s politics must snap out of its tribalism and recover the conventional left-right dichotomy.
(13) 4 October 2009: George Papandreou becomes prime minister Papandreou's Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) party wins power after New Democracy calls a snap general election, asking the Greek people for a new mandate to tackle the looming financial crisis.
(14) At this point, you are well within your rights to snap back: "It's all right for you.
(15) In addition, we examined 31 archival in situ carcinomas, 15 snap-frozen invasive ductal carcinomas, primary cell cultures from three benign breast tissue samples, and breast carcinoma cell lines MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-468.
(16) Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said buyers were snapping up "enticing deals on a wealth of advanced new products".
(17) There they discovered a little-known club called Amnesia and a DJ called Alfredo and instead of coming back with a few out-of-focus snaps, Paul Oakenfold, Johnny Walker, Danny Rampling and Nicky Holloway returned home exhausted but burning with a missionary zeal.
(18) Imperial Tobacco has become a major player in the US market after snapping up a raft of brands in a £4.2bn ($7bn) deal.
(19) The launch of Sky Atlantic follows the broadcaster's audacious £150m, five-year deal to snap up the exclusive UK TV rights to US cable channel HBO's entire archive, new HBO programming and a first-look deal on all co-productions.
(20) The SNAP was able to detect either 5 ng of C. jejuni DNA or 10(5) CFU of bacteria.