Also 4 brek, 5–6 breke, 5–7 breake. [f. BREAK v.]
1. An act of breaking; breakage, fracture.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6344. Wit-vten ani brek or brist. Ibid., 8044. Wit-vten brek of ani bogh.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 49. Breke, or brekynge, ruptura, fractura.
1870. Standard, 12 Dec. 5/5. The great operation had been stopped by the break of a bridge of boats over the Marne.
b. With adverbs, expressing the action of the corresponding verbal combinations (BREAK v. 48–56); as break-away, break-in, break-out, BREAK-DOWN, BREAK-UP, etc.
1885. Times, 4 June, 10/3. After several *breaks away the 12 competitors were despatched to an excellent start.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. vii. 83. My joy at this first *break-in upon its drudgery.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xxvi. They would be sure to make a *break-out if the officers meddled with the auld Popish witch-wife.
1870. Standard, 13 Dec., 5/2. One of the regiments brought back from Rome on the break-out of the war.
2. Break of day or morn: the first appearance of light, the dawn. So Break of June: the beginning or opening days of June.
1584. Lodge, Alarum, Forb. & Prisc., 21 b. The careful Marriner … sought for his Loade starre, and at breake of morning … found it out.
1597. Drayton, Mortimer., 107. The misty breake yet proues a goodly day.
1647. W. Browne, Polex., II. 205. At the fifth dayes break, those that were in the top of the maine Mast began to cry, Land.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4471/3. Lieutenant-General Dedem was … order’d to march Yesterday at break a-Day.
1755. Young, Centaur, vi. (1757), IV. 252. I see the break of their moral day.
1812. J. Wilson, Isle of Palms, III. 749. Now dim, now dazzling like the break of morn.
1820. Keats, Isabella, IV. 26. A whole long month of May in this sad plight Made their cheeks paler by the break of June.
† 3. An irruption, a breaking in. Obs.
c. 1565. R. Lindsay, Chron. Scot. (1728), 57. The Englishmen had wasted so much on the borders, without any occasion or break of him to England.
† 4. A breaking forth, a burst (of sound). Obs.
1750. [R. Pultock], Life P. Wilkins, xxxiii. (1883), 90/1. The order of their flight was admirable, and the break of the trumpets so great … that I wondered how they could bear it.
5. Cricket. A ‘twist’ or deviation of the ball from its previous direction on touching the ground. Break-back: the breaking in of a ball from the off side (i.e., with a right-handed bowler).
1866. Jerks in from Short Leg, 74. The feel shooter cutting in, or the break-back removing a bail, destroys in a moment the vision of triumph.
1881. Standard, 18 June, 3/1. Steel beat him with the break, and Hone stumped him well.
1881. Macm. Mag., XLIII. 288/2. By virtue of a good pitch and a break back.
1884. I. Bligh, in Lillywhite’s Cricket Ann., 7. Considerable command over the ball in respect of pitch and break.
1886. Daily News, 22 July, 5/1. Mr. Tylecote kept wicket excellently, though he was bowled by an unplayable break-back of Mr. Spofforth’s before he got his eye in.
6. a. Billiards. A consecutive series of successful strokes; the number of points thus scored. b. Similarly in Croquet.
1865. Times, 10 April, 12/3. Mr. Russell vastly improved in his play, making some very excellent breaks.
1874. J. D. Heath, Croquet-Player, 55. Do not let the balls you are playing on in your break get too close together.
1883. Land & Water, 10 Feb., 99. It is evidently possible, given the necessary nerve and skill, for breaks of 500 and upwards to be made on the billiard tables of the present make.
7. A broken place, gap or opening: of more general application than BREACH.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 14012. Þar sco fand ani breck or sare, Wit hir smerl sco smerd þare.
1539. Act 31 Hen. VIII., v. It shalbe lawfull … to make dere leapes and breakes in the said hedges.
1688. J. Clayton, in Phil. Trans., XVII. 987. At the breakes of some banks, I have found veins of Clay.
1691. T. H[ale], Acc. New Invent., 97. Where these Holes or Breaks are met with.
1836. Macgillivray, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., ii. 39. The Peak of Teyde … appeared in a break above the clouds.
1879. Seguin, Black For., xiv. 236. He might wander … without finding a break in the mountain wall.
† b. An opening, a bay. Obs.
1557. Paynel, Barclay’s Jugurth, 80. For about the extreme partes of Affrike be ij brekes of the sea [L. sinus] nere together.
8. An interruption of continuity: a. in anything material; spec. in geological strata, a fault; also in the deck of a ship (see quot. 1850).
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 264. The hollow channel in the middle where there was a kind of fall or break in it.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., Y viij b. Signs of some Break, Chun, or Vein.
1791. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 209. Probably with several breaks, as is usual in the arrangement of the Strata of the earth.
1832. Marryat, N. Forster, xxxii. Captain Drawlock walked to the break of the gangways.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xiii. 32. Foster went as far as the break of the deck, and there waited for him.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 101. Break, the sudden termination or rise in the decks of some merchant ships, where the aft and sometimes the forepart of the deck is kept up to give more height between decks.
b. in a course of action or time.
1689. Sherlock, Death, iii. § 4 (1731), 114. It makes a Break in our Lives.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., I. 134. This remarkable break in the regular sequence of physical events.
1878. Lady Herbert, trans. Hübner’s Ramble, I. xii. 184. The run is 5,000 miles without a break.
1878. Morley, Diderot, I. 252. He would pass a whole month without a day’s break, working ten hours a day at the revision of proof-sheets.
c. in a discourse or composition; in the rhythm of a verse; also in printed matter. Occas. attrib., as in break-line.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., A iiij b. You finde the word in the Margent in that breake [paragraph] against it.
1710. Swift, Tatler, No. 230, ¶ 6. The Breaks at the End of almost every Sentence.
1779. Johnson, Dryden, L. P. (1816), IX. 393. The Alexandrine … invariably requires a break at the sixth syllable.
1885. Law Rep. Queen’s B., XIV. 727. There is no break in the section, and the words ‘in any highway,’ govern all that follows.
d. Marks [– – –] employed in print or writing to indicate abrupt pauses.
1733. Swift, On Poetry, Wks. 1755, IV. I. 186. In modern wit all printed trash is Set off with num’rous breaks - - - and dashes —.
1862. T. Trollope, Marietta, I. x. 183. An unlimited supply of question stops, marks of admiration, italics and breaks.
9. Music. a. The point of separation between the different registers of a voice. b. ‘In an organ stop: The sudden alteration of the proper scale-series of pipes by returning to those of an octave lower in pitch’ (Stainer and Barrett).
1881. C. A. Edwards, Organs, 153. As a rule on modern organs the breaks are made on the C sharp keys.
1883. Curwen, Standard Course, 105/2. Passages running across the ‘break’ can be sung with an even quality of voice. Ibid., 107/1. The break between the upper and lower thick registers is easily noticed in male voices.
10. Something abruptly breaking the line, or level; an irregularity, roughness, knot, etc.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., Wks. I. 241. The fine variation is lost in wrinkles, sudden breaks, and right lines.
1771. Sir J. Reynolds, Disc., iv. (1876), 362. A portrait-painter … leaves out all the minute breaks in the face.
1787. Best, Angling (ed. 2), 168. Break, a knot in the joint of a rod.
b. Archit. (see quots.)
1685. Evelyn, Diary (1827), III. 178. Windows and Columns at the break and entrance of free-stone.
1807. Hutton, Course Math., II. 88. The breaks of the windows themselves are 8 feet 6 inches high, and 1 foot 3 inches deep.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 441. Any portion of the exterior side of a building which protrudes itself towards the spectator, is denominated a projection or break.
11. A number of chests of tea, a lot or consignment.
1864. Times, 4 Nov., 4/2. A few breaks of Canton scented orange pekoe sold. Ibid. (1883), 24 March, 3/5. In a break of 600 chests you will find an absolute uniformity of weight, both of package and contents and of quality.
12. A portion of ground broken up for cultivation; a tract distinct in surface or appearance.
1674. Ray, S. & E. Count. Wds., 60. Break, land plowed the first year after it hath lain fallow in the sheep walks. Norf.
1767. A. Young, Farmer’s Lett. People, 11. I have … seen Breaks of wheat of five quarters per acre.
1794. Statist. Acc. Scot., XI. 152. Such farms as are divided into 3 inclosures, or, as they are commonly called, breaks.
1878. Black, Green Past., II. 14. Young rabbits … scurried through the dry heather to the sandy breaks.
1883. Nature, XXVII. 446. The ‘break’ or oasis, believed … to exist in the interior of Greenland.
13. dial. A large number or quantity.
1808. Jamieson, Break, a considerable number of people, a crowd; as a break of folk, Fife.
1880. W. Cornwall Gloss. (E. D. S.), Brake, a large quantity: particularly applied to flowers, as a ‘brake of honeysuckle.’
1884. G. C. Davies, Norfolk Broads, xxxii. 247. The sky was cloudless, & the stars remarkably brilliant…. Alluding to the ‘break’ of stars above us, the man said that it foretold rough stormy weather.
