English dictionary
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English verb: break down | |||
| 1. | break down (competition) make ineffective | ||
| Samples | Martin Luther King tried to break down racial discrimination. | ||
| Synonyms | crush | ||
| Pattern of use | Somebody ----s something. Something ----s something | ||
| Broader (hypernym) | alter, change, modify | ||
| 2. | break down (cognition) make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features | ||
| Samples | Analyze a specimen. Analyze a sentence. Analyze a chemical compound. | ||
| Synonyms | analyse, analyze, dissect, take apart | ||
| Pattern of use | Somebody ----s something | ||
| Narrower (hyponym) | botanise, botanize, parse | ||
| Antonyms | synthesise, synthesize | ||
| 3. | break down (emotion) lose control of one's emotions | ||
| Samples | When she heard that she had not passed the exam, she lost it completely. When her baby died, she snapped. | ||
| Examples | Sam and Sue break down | ||
| Synonyms | lose it, snap | ||
| Pattern of use | Somebody ----s | ||
| Broader (hypernym) | act, behave, do | ||
| Narrower (hyponym) | die, dissolve, fall apart, go to pieces | ||
| 4. | break down (change) stop operating or functioning | ||
| Samples | 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. | ||
| Examples | These cars won't break down | ||
| Synonyms | break, conk out, die, fail, give out, give way, go, go bad | ||
| Pattern of use | Something ----s | ||
| Broader (hypernym) | change | ||
| Narrower (hyponym) | blow, blow out, burn out, crash, go down, malfunction, misfire, misfunction | ||
| Verb group | break, 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 | ||
| 5. | break down (motion) fall apart | ||
| Samples | The building crumbled after the explosion. Negotiations broke down. | ||
| Synonyms | collapse, crumble, crumple, tumble | ||
| Pattern of use | Something ----s | ||
| Broader (hypernym) | change integrity | ||
| 6. | break down (contact) cause to fall or collapse | ||
| Examples | They want to break down the doors | ||
| Pattern of use | Somebody ----s something. Something ----s something | ||
| Broader (hypernym) | break, bust | ||
| Cause | break down, collapse, crumble, crumple, tumble | ||
| 7. | break down (change) separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts | ||
| Synonyms | break up, decompose | ||
| Pattern of use | Somebody ----s somebody. Something ----s something | ||
| Broader (hypernym) | separate | ||
| Narrower (hyponym) | crack, digest, dissociate | ||
| Domain category | chemical science, chemistry | ||
| 8. | break down (body) collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack | ||
| Examples | Sam and Sue break down | ||
| Synonyms | collapse | ||
| Pattern of use | Somebody ----s | ||
| Broader (hypernym) | get, have, suffer, sustain | ||
| Narrower (hyponym) | drop like flies, fall over, go over | ||
Based on WordNet 3.0 copyright © Princeton University.
Web design: Orcapia v/Per Bang. English edition: .
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Web design: Orcapia v/Per Bang. English edition: .
2024 onlineordbog.dk