| / English Dictionary |
BREAK THROUGH
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Penetrate
Example:
The rescue team broke through the wall in the mine shaft
Synonyms:
break through; come through
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "break through" is one way to...):
appear (come into sight or view)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Derivation:
breakthrough (a penetration of a barrier such as an enemy's defense)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Pass through (a barrier)
Example:
Registrations cracked through the 30,000 mark in the county
Synonyms:
break through; crack
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "break through" is one way to...):
pass (go across or through)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s something
Sense 3
Meaning:
Break out
Example:
The tooth erupted and had to be extracted
Synonyms:
break through; come out; erupt; push through
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "break through" is one way to...):
appear (come into sight or view)
Verb group:
erupt (appear on the skin)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "break through"):
dehisce (burst or split open)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s
Context examples:
He told me, he had for many years been commander of a ship; and in the sea fight at Actium had the good fortune to break through the enemy’s great line of battle, sink three of their capital ships, and take a fourth, which was the sole cause of Antony’s flight, and of the victory that ensued; that the youth standing by him, his only son, was killed in the action.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
There was no bearing such an “always;” and to break through her dreadful gratitude, Emma made the direct inquiry of—Where—may I ask?—is Miss Fairfax going?
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
In the winter, when the earth is frozen hard, they are obliged to stay below and cannot work their way through; but now, when the sun has thawed and warmed the earth, they break through it, and come out to pry and steal; and what once gets into their hands, and in their caves, does not easily see daylight again.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Fanny estranged from him, silent and reserved, was an unnatural state of things; a state which he must break through, and which he could easily learn to think she was wanting him to break through.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
But there went a report through all the land of the beautiful sleeping Briar Rose (for so the king’s daughter was called): so that, from time to time, several kings’ sons came, and tried to break through the thicket into the palace.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
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