Middle English Dictionary Entry

brēken v.
Quotations: Show all Hide all

Entry Info

Forms brēken v. Also breoken, braken. Forms: sg. 3 brēketh, briketh, brickes, brekþ, bregþ; p. sg. brak ( brakke), brec; brēk(e; brōk(e; p.pl. brēke(n ( brēgen); brāke(n; brōke(n; ppl. brōke(n, brouk(en; brāke.
Etymology OE brecan; bræc; bræcon, brēcon; brocen. In later ME the stems of the sg. and pl. of the past are leveled in various ways, and (later) the ō of the ppl. appears in the past.

Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)

1a.
(a) To break (an object) into parts; dash to pieces; destroy the wholeness of (an object); shatter (a weapon) in combat; crush (the human body, etc.); ~ atwo, ~ asonder, ~ in peces, etc.; (b) to go to pieces, break up.
Show 37 Quotations
1b.
To tear (clothes, etc.); tear (one's hair); broken, torn, ragged.
Show 9 Quotations
1c.
To cut up or carve (an animal); mince (meat).
Show 4 Quotations
1d.
(a) To break (bread) into portions for eating or for Holy Communion; (b) ~ bred, to partake of food; to have sustenance, live; (c) ~ bred, to distribute food; (d) fragments of food or remnants of drink left after a meal; broken ale (mete, wine).
Show 21 Quotations
1e.
To break (coin, objects of silver or gold) into fragments; prepare for remelting; broke(n silver (gold); ?also, to exchange (a coin, etc.) for coins individually of less value [quot. 1472-74].
Show 9 Quotations
1f.
broken bulk, the remainder of a cargo.
Show 1 Quotation
2a.
(a) To fracture (a bone); break (a limb); cripple or injure (sb.); (b) of a limb: to break; of a tortured person: be lacerated or dismembered; ~ bruchen, suffer injuries; (c) broke-foted, -legged, -shonked.
Show 18 Quotations
2b.
(a) To break or cripple (the backbone); (b) broke(nbak(ked, ~ rigged, ~ rugget, hunchbacked.
Show 17 Quotations
2c.
breken nekke: (a) to fracture (one's) neck; also, die of a broken neck; of the neck: break; (b) to sever (someone's) neck.
Show 7 Quotations
2d.
breken hed: (a) to crack or bash in the skull, crush the head; (b) fig. to treat (sb.) with contempt; discomfit; (c) to rack (one's) brains, exert oneself.
Show 10 Quotations
2e.
(a) Of the heart: to lose composure, be in utter distress, break; ~ atwo, ~ in thre, ~ on five; (b) to break (the heart).
Show 14 Quotations
3.
(a) To reduce (sth.) to fragments, as by crushing, stamping, or grinding; crush, grind, pulverize; ~ to poudre; (b) of waves: to break or foam.
Show 13 Quotations
4.
Of song, speech, and sound: (a) to trill or modulate (a note); (b) broken vois, subdued or quavering voice; (c) breken wordes, to articulate or sound words; (d) of air: to reverberate.
Show 7 Quotations
5.
(a) To break or tear (a rope, cord, etc.); break (fetters); sever (a bond); ~ asonder; also fig.; (b) of a rope or bond: to break or be severed.
Show 15 Quotations
6.
(a) To disband (a company of people); break up (a household, a school); disrupt (companionship); ~ up; (b) to disrupt (a battle formation), throw into disorder.
Show 10 Quotations
7.
To break down (a building, tree, etc.); demolish, destroy; fall into disrepair; ~ a)doun.
Show 20 Quotations
8.
Of a vessel: to suffer shipwreck, be wrecked; also said of people [quot.: 1430]; (b) to cause (a ship) to be wrecked; ppl. broken, wrecked.
Show 9 Quotations
9a.
(a) To impair or destroy (power, fortune, etc.); ~ word, infringe upon or break (instructions); brekinde, exposed to destruction, fragile; (b) to reduce or remove (a burden).
Show 12 Quotations
9b.
(a) To subdue the pride of (sb.); break down in spirit; ~ doun; (b) to subdue (one's desire); discipline (oneself).
Show 6 Quotations
10.
To harm or weaken (sb.), as in health or vigor; to corrupt (sb.) with respect to morals.
Show 7 Quotations
11.
(a) To break (sth.) down; breach (a wall, fence, etc.); force open (a door, chest, etc.); of a gate: be forced open; ~ up; (b) ~ an hole, to make a breach or hole.
Show 21 Quotations
12.
(a) To make forced entry into (a building, etc.); break into, enter; harrow (hell); (b) to break (into a building, place); make forced entry; also, ~ in; (c) of a place: to be broken into.
Show 19 Quotations
13.
(a) To penetrate or pierce (sth.); ~ thurgh; ~ forth, force one's way, make headway; (b) of the sea, a flood, etc.: ~ in(to, to invade or extend into (land), intrude upon.
Show 9 Quotations
14.
To break into (the ranks of an enemy), invade; ~ in.
Show 5 Quotations
15.
To break open (something closed, sealed, or stopped up); open (a letter), crack open (a nut, an egg); cut open (the belly); force open (a coffer); unstop or open (a drain, pond); ~ up.
Show 15 Quotations
16.
(a) To disclose or reveal (sth.); also, express an opinion, give advice; ~ of, to disclose (sth. to sb.); ~ word, interpret a parable; (b) ~ herte, to open up (one's) heart, disclose or express (one's) feelings or intentions.
Show 10 Quotations
17a.
(a) To break open (an abscess) so as to let the enclosed matter discharge; cause (an abscess) to suppurate and break; of the abscess: to break open, open up; (b) of a medicine: to promote suppuration and breaking; breaking oinement.
Show 11 Quotations
17b.
Of a blood vessel, vital organ: to break open, burst; ben broken.
Show 4 Quotations
17c.
To dissolve or eliminate (a gallstone, cataract, congestion, etc.); ~ oute, expel.
Show 6 Quotations
18.
(a) To rupture (the skin or other membrane); breach (the hymen); (b) to have a hernia or rupture; broken, afflicted with hernia, ruptured; broken-lended, having inguinal hernia; broke-balloked, having scrotal hernia.
Show 19 Quotations
19.
(a) To break up or plow (land); ~ up; (b) to level (a hill, the ground); ~ doun.
Show 6 Quotations
20.
(a) To part (a mass of air or water); cleave (a rock); (b) to separate (married persons).
Show 9 Quotations
21.
(a) To break (sth.) away (from sth. else); break off, remove; ~ awai, ~ of; (b) to break off, become separate.
Show 11 Quotations
22.
(a) Intransitive: to change direction, turn (in a certain direction); ~ oute, project, jut; of light: to be deflected or reflected; (b) transitive: to reflect or deflect (light); ~ up, deflect (the string of a bow), i.e. draw (the string);
Show 7 Quotations
23a.
(a) To break or flout (a law, commandment, etc.); violate (a prohibition); fail to obey (an order, a will); fail to keep (a sacrament, a fast, a holy day, a religious faith); fail to maintain (silence, chastity, obedience); (b) to break the moral law, transgress, sin; ~ bruche, commit a sin, transgress; practice (simony).
Show 33 Quotations
23b.
(a) To break, violate (an agreement or its terms); break or disturb (the peace); (b) to nullify or cancel (an obligation), render void.
Show 15 Quotations
23c.
(a) To break (a pledge, vow, or promise), violate (pledged faith or troth); (b) to break (the marriage vow), commit adultery; (c) breken dai, to fail to keep (one's) promise by an appointed time.
Show 22 Quotations
24.
(a) To break off (an action, a relationship); put a stop to (a situation), terminate (negotiations); cut short, bring to a sudden end; ~ of; -- with or without obj.; (b) of an action: to come to a sudden stop; of a malady: to abate; of festivity: ~ up, break up; (c) ~ faste, to put an end to fasting; take the first meal of the day; start eating; (d) ~ silence, to put an end to silence, speak; (e) ~ (up) sege, to raise a siege.
Show 29 Quotations
25.
(a) To interrupt or interfere with (an action, practice, or state); stop for a while; (b) broken, interrupted, discontinuous; fragmentary, brief; (c) math. broken progressioun [see quot.].
Show 12 Quotations
26.
(a) To break loose (from capture, restraint, prison); ~ los; break out (of an enclosed place, of battle formation); make an escape; ~ awai, ~ oute, ~ up; (b) to escape from (prison, arrest); break away from (a religious order); (c) to deviate (from a translated source) [examples with ~ oute of may be taken either as a phrasal verb breken oute followed by of prep., or as breken v. followed by the compound preposition oute of, q.v.].
Show 25 Quotations
27.
Of men in ambush, etc.: to spring into action; ~ out; ~ (up)on, spring upon (sb.), attack suddenly; of temptation: assail.
Show 9 Quotations
28.
(a) ~ on, to proceed or start (to say sth.); of merriment: come to be, occur; (b) to burst (into speech, etc.), speak out; -- often with in to phrase as complement; ~ forth, to erupt (into novel behavior); ~ oute; of speech: be uttered; (c) ~ oute, of words, a cry: to burst forth.
Show 17 Quotations
29.
breken out: (a) of a person, a person's skin, etc.: to become inflamed with sores, ulcers, etc., break out with eruptions of disease; also fig.; of a sore: erupt; (b) to break out (in sweat).
Show 9 Quotations
30.
breken out, to issue abruptly; spring or burst out, rush forth; erupt; ~ up, spring up, emerge.
Show 9 Quotations
31.
Of flowers, leaves: to burst out of bud, sprout; ~ oute; ?also (transitive), to sprout (flowers).
Show 5 Quotations
32.
In surnames: (a) Breke-bak, etc.; (b) Broke(n-heved, etc.
Show 22 Quotations
33.
Miscel. uses: (a) to retch; (b) of the sea: to subside; (c) ~ up, of war: to break out, start; (d) broken flintes, precipitous cliffs; (e) broken humour, corrupt 'humour'; (f) breken the brokes, hunt. to beat the streams.
Show 6 Quotations

Supplemental Materials (draft)

Note: In sense 1e., quot. (1472-4) from the St.Andrews Hubbard Churchwardens' Accounts may refer to virtual breaking (as in 'can you break a twenty?') or to the real, physical breaking up of a coin; if the former, it antedates OED's sense 2.(e) by nearly three hundred years.

Supplemental Materials (draft)

  • c1450(c1400) Sultan Bab.(Gar 140)1963 : Whan he come, he founde the dore fast I-stoke; He smote there-on with his fist, That the barr began to broke.
    • Note: New form: Also..broke.
    Note: Quot. belongs to sense 1a.(b).
  • ?a1425 *MS Htrn.95 (Htrn 95)113b/b : Ȝif..þe enfermite were cured & þen brake out aȝeine, it is a token þat þe bone is corupt.
    • Note: Additional quot. for sense 29.(a).
  • c1455 Chaucer CT.Mch.(Trin-C R.3.3)1850 : Braketh [RwlPoet. 223: braked; Heng: Whil þat he song, so chaunteth he and craketh].
    • Note: Supplementary material for sense 4.(a).
  • (1472) Stonor1.127, 128 : I have thorowly comyned with the preste..and tolde hym..howe he shal be demened in brekynge with my seid Mastres, and that he shall not breke to much at oones to her, but ever whenne he spekyth in the mater to her..and he hath promysid me that every letter þat I sende here shal be brekyn or he departe from her.
    • Note: Additional quot. for sense 16.(a).
  • (1472) Stonor1.128 : Paraventur the Norce would feer to breke fer wiþe her and also shee myght not contynue..the communicacion.
    • Note: New sense for sense 16.(a).
    Note: Modify existing gloss: "16.(a) To disclose or reveal (sth.); also, express an opinion, give advice; ~ with, to disclose or reveal (sth.) to (sb.);..."
  • a1500 GLeg.Suppl.Erkenwald (Add 35298)71/909 : With that he lyfte hir vp, and then she brake vp with a crying voyce and saide: 'O moste holy fader Seinte Erkenwolde, haue mercy on me.'
    • Note: Editor's note: "brake...voyce: 'conclamauit dicens', Miraculi XVIII, 38. See MED breken v. 28.(c), break out. MED does not record the verb b~ up."
    Note: Additional quot. for sense 28.(c) [or possibly 28.(b)] with modified gloss, adding ~ up to the sense.

Supplemental Materials (draft)

  • c1430(a1410) Love Mirror (Brsn e.9)222 : breken oute..of blod.
    • Note: Supplementary material for sense 29.(b).
    Note: ~ oute of, to sweat (blood).
Note: The list of variant spellings in the form section may be incomplete and / or may need revision to accord with standards of later volumes of the MED.--notes per MLL

Supplemental Materials (draft)

Note: Med., etc. (sense 17a.(b)), see further J.Norri, Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary, s.v. breaking oinement.

©2024 Regents of the University of Michigan. For details about this collection's copyright see the MEC copyright statement and the U-M Library Copyright Policy. Data last refreshed Tuesday, November 26, 2024 at 13:27:00.