break_down has definitions from the field of medicine
1
[ verb ] make ineffective

Synonyms

crush

Examples

"Martin Luther King tried to break down racial discrimination"

Used in print

(James Bryant Conant, Slums and Suburbs...)

It is at_least as important as the more dramatic attempts to break_down barriers of inequality in the South .

Related terms

change dislocation

2
[ verb ] make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features

Examples

"analyze a specimen" "analyze a sentence" "analyze a chemical compound"

Used in print

([Anonymous,] "The Attack on Employee Services"...)

Have the insurance_company or your own accounting department break_down the cost of your insurance package periodically .

3
[ verb ] separate into constituent elements or parts, as of chemical substances

Synonyms

decompose break_up

4
[ verb ] stop operating or functioning

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"

Used in print

(The Oregonian, [Portland],...)

He pointed_out to the commissioners that the agency was literally dependent now on the machine processing , `` and the whole wheels of the agency would stop if it broke_down or the three or four persons directing it were to leave '' .

(Frank Lorimer, Demographic Information on...)

The system tended to break_down during the war , but was reactivated ; it had reached the pre-war level of efficiency by 1951 .

5
[ verb ] lose control of one's emotions

Synonyms

snap lose_it

Examples

"When she heard that she had not passed the exam, she lost it completely" "When her baby died, she snapped"

Used in print

(Perry Miller "Theodore Parker: Apostasy within Liberalism"...)

Fortunately , the honor of the denomination can attest that Cyrus_Bartol defended Parker 's sincerity , as did also Gannett and Chandler_Robbins ; whereupon Parker broke_down into convulsions of weeping and rushed out of the room , though not out of the Fellowship .

(David Alexander, Bloodstain....)

And_then he heard a car coming from the east , and he felt as if he would break_down and weep .

6
[ verb ] fall apart

Examples

"the building crumbled after the explosion" "Negociations broke down"

Used in print

(James Boylan, "Mutinity"...)

When Hudson had finished , the `` town_meeting '' broke_down into a general , wordy argument .

Related terms

change_integrity

7
[ verb ] cause to fall or collapse

Related terms

break crumble

8
[ verb ] (medicine) collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack

Synonyms

collapse

Related terms

suffer fall_over collapse

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