| / English Dictionary |
BREAK DOWN
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack
Synonyms:
break down; collapse
Classified under:
Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care
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"):
drop like flies (rapidly collapse, die, or drop out in large numbers)
fall over; go over (fall forward and down)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s
Sentence example:
Sam and Sue break down
Derivation:
breakdown (a mental or physical breakdown)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts
Synonyms:
break down; break up; decompose
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
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
Derivation:
breakdown ((biology) the process of decay caused by bacterial or fungal action)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Stop operating or functioning
Example:
her eyesight went after the accident
Synonyms:
break; break down; conk out; die; fail; give out; give way; go; go bad
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "break down" is one way to...):
change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)
Verb group:
buy the farm; cash in one's chips; choke; conk; croak; decease; die; drop dead; exit; expire; give-up the ghost; go; kick the bucket; pass; pass away; perish; pop off; snuff it (pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life)
break (render inoperable or ineffective)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "break down"):
crash; go down (stop operating)
blow; blow out; burn out (melt, break, or become otherwise unusable)
misfire (fail to fire or detonate)
malfunction; misfunction (fail to function or function improperly)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Sentence example:
These cars won't break down
Derivation:
breakdown (a cessation of normal operation)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features
Example:
analyze a chemical compound
Synonyms:
analyse; analyze; break down; dissect; take apart
Classified under:
Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting
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
Derivation:
breakdown (an analysis into mutually exclusive categories)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Make ineffective
Example:
Martin Luther King tried to break down racial discrimination
Synonyms:
break down; crush
Classified under:
Verbs of fighting, athletic activities
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
Derivation:
breakdown (the act of disrupting an established order so it fails to continue)
Sense 6
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
Sense 7
Meaning:
Lose control of one's emotions
Example:
When her baby died, she snapped
Synonyms:
Classified under:
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
Derivation:
breakdown (a mental or physical breakdown)
Sense 8
Meaning:
Fall apart
Example:
Negotiations broke down
Synonyms:
break down; collapse; crumble; crumple; tumble
Classified under:
Verbs of walking, flying, swimming
Hypernyms (to "break down" is one way to...):
change integrity (change in physical make-up)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Context examples:
The study shows that sunlight doesn't just cause the plastics to physically break down; it also causes them to degrade chemically into dissolved organic carbon and trace amounts of carbon dioxide.
(Sunlight degrades polystyrene faster than expected, National Science Foundation)
Ammonia is also made by the body when proteins break down.
(Ammonia, NCI Dictionary)
In glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, the red blood cells break down when the body is exposed to infection, severe stress, or certain drugs, chemicals, or foods.
(Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, NCI Dictionary)
Certain enzymes that help make or break down glycogen are missing or do not work the way they should.
(Glycogen storage disease, NCI Dictionary)
The bone starts to die and may break down.
(Osteonecrosis, NIH: National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases)
It produces the juices that help break down food and the hormones that help control blood sugar levels.
(Pancreas Transplantation, NIH)
It produces juices that help break down food and hormones that help control blood sugar levels.
(Pancreatic Diseases, NIH)
A disorder characterized by the body's inability to break down and utilize the essential amino acid phenylalanine.
(Phenylketonuria, NCI Thesaurus)
A type of disease in which the nerve cells in the brain that act on muscle cells break down and stop working.
(Motor neuron disease, NCI Dictionary)
A member of a group of enzymes that can break down proteins, such as collagen, that are normally found in the spaces between cells in tissues (i.e., extracellular matrix proteins).
(Matrix metalloproteinase, NCI Dictionary)
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