368 B R E 
To make a fwellmg or impodhume open. To violate a 
contract'or promife: 
Did not our worthies of the houfe, 
Before they broke the peace, break vows ? Hudibras. 
To infringe a law : 
Unhappy man! to break the pious laws 
Of nature, pleading in his children’s caufe. Dryden. 
To (top ; to make ceafe.— Break their talk, midrefs Quick¬ 
ly ; my kinfman fliall fpeak for himfelf. Skakefpeare. —To 
intercept : 
As one condemn’d to leap a precipice, 
Who fees before his eyes the depth below. 
Stops (hort, and looks about for fome kind fhrjib 
To break his dreadful fall. Dryden. 
To interrupt: 
Some folitary cloiiler will I choofe ; 
Coarfe my attire, and fliort (hall be my deep, 
Broke by the melancholy midnight bell. Dryden. 
To feparate company.—Did not Paul and Barnabas dif- 
putewith that vehemence, that they were forced to break 
company ? Atterbury. —To diffolve any union.—It is a 
great folly, as well as injudice, to break off fo noble a re¬ 
lation. Collier. —To reform, with of. —The French were 
not quite broken of it until fome time after they became 
Chridians. Grew. —To open lomething bew ; to propound 
fomething by an overture, as if a leal were opened.— 
When any new thing fliall be propounded, no counfellor 
fiiould fuddeniy deliver any pofitive opinion, but only 
hear it, and at the mod: but to break it, at fird, that it may 
be the better underdood at the next meeting. Bacon. 
To Break the Back. To drain or dillocate the ver¬ 
tebrae with too heavy burdens : 
I’d rather crack my dnews, break my back, 
Than you (hould fuch difhonour undergo. Skakefpeare. 
To difable one’s fortune. 
To B reak a Deer. To cut it up at table. 
To Break Fast. To eat the fird time in the day. 
To Break Ground. To plough. — The hufbandman 
mud fird break the land, before it be made capable of good 
feed. Davies. —To open trenches. 
To Break the Heart. To dedroy with grief : 
Should not all relations bear a part, 
It were enough to break a Jingle heart. Dryden. 
To Break a Jest. To utter a jed unexpected. 
To Break the Neck. To lux or put out the neck- 
joints.— 1 had as lief thou didd break his neck as his fin¬ 
gers. Skakefpeare. 
To Break off. To put a hidden dop, to interrupt; 
to preclude by fome obdacle fuddeniy interpofed : 
To check the darts and falliesof the foul, 
And break off all its commerce with the tongue. Addifon. 
To Break up. To diffolve; to put a fudden end to ; 
Who cannot red till he good fellows find ; 
He breaks up houfe, turns out off doors his mind. Herbert. 
To open ; to lay open.—Shells being lodged amongft mine¬ 
ral matter, when this comes to be broke up, it exhibits im- 
predions of the (hells. Woodward. —To feparate or dif- 
band.—After taking the drongeity of Belgrade, Solyman, 
returning to Confiantinople, broke up his army. Knolles. 
To Break upon the Wheel. To punilh by dretch¬ 
ing a criminal upon the wheel, and breaking his bones. 
To Break Wind. To give vent to wind in the body. 
To BREAK, v. n. To part in two : 
Give forrow words; the grief that does not fpeak 
Whifpers the o’erfraught heart, and bid^ it break. Shakef. 
To burd: 
The Roman camp 
Hangs o’er us black and threatening, like a dorm 
jud breaking on our heads. Dvyden. 
B R E - v 
To fpread by dadiing, as waves on a rock.—He could 
compare the confufion of a multitude to that tumult in 
the Icarian fea, dadiing and breaking among its crowd of 
iflands. Pope. —To break as a dwelling; to open, and dif- 
charge matter,—Some hidden abfeefs in the mefentery, 
breaking fome few days after, was difeovered to be an apof- 
teme. Harvey. —To open as the morning.—When a man 
thinks of any thing in the darknefs of the night, whatever 
deep impredions it may make in his mind, they are apt to 
vanidi as the day breaks about him. Addifon. —To burff 
forth; to exclaim; 
Every man, 
After the hideous dorm that follow’d, was 
A thing infpir’d ; and, not confulting, broke 
Into a general prophecy. Skakefpeare. 
To become bankrupt.—He that puts all upon adventures, 
doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty. Bacon. —To 
decline in health and drength : 
Yet thus, methinks, I hear them fpeak; 
See how the dean begins to break-. 
Poor gentleman ! he droops apace. Swift. 
To iffue out with vehemence. To make way with fome 
kind of fuddennefs, impetuofity, or violence.—Calamities 
may be neared at hand, and readied to break in fuddeniy 
upon us, which we, in regard of times or circumdances, 
may imagine to be farthed off. Hooker. 
Almighty Pow’r, by whofe mod wife command 
Helplefs, forlorn, uncertain, here I dand ; 
Take this faint glimmering of thyfelf away, 
Or break into my foul with perfefl day ! Arbuthnots 
To come to an explanation.—But, perceiving this great al¬ 
teration in his friend, he thought fit to break with him 
thereof. Sidney. —To fall out; to be friends no longer'; 
Be not afraid to break 
With murd’rers and traitors, for the faving 
A life fo near and neceffary to you. 
As is your country’s. Ben Johnfou. 
To Break from. To go away with fome vehemence ; 
How didd thou fcorn life’s meaner charms, 
Thou who could’d break from Laura’s arms ! Rofcommon. 
To Break in. To enter unexpefledly, without proper 
preparation.—The doctor is a pedant, that, with a deep 
voice, and a magiderial air, breaks in upon converfation, and 
drives down all before him. Addifon. 
To Break loose. To efcape from captivity : 
Who would not, finding way, break looft from hell, 
And boldly venture to whatever place 
Farthed from pain. Milton. 
To (hake off redraint.—If we deal falfely in covenant with 
God, and break loofe from all our engagements to him, we 
releafe God from all the promifes he has made to us. Tillolf. 
To Break off. To defid fuddeniy.—Do not peremp¬ 
torily break off, in any budnefs, in a fit of anger ; blit, how- 
foever you (hew bitternefs, do not aft any thing that is not 
revocable. Bacon. 
To Break off from. To part from with violence.— 
I mudy>o« this enchanting queen break off. Skakefpeare. 
To Break out. To difeover itfelf in fudden effefts. 
— As fire breaks out of flint by percudion, fo vvifdom and 
truth iffueth out by the agitation of argument. Howel. — 
To have eruptions from the body, as pudules or fores. To 
become diffolute.—He broke not out into his great exceffes, 
while he was redrained by the councils and authority of 
Seneca. Dryden. 
To Break up. To ceafe; to intermit. — It is credibly 
affirmed, that, upon that very day when the river fird ri- 
feth, great plagues in Cairo life fuddeniy to break up. Bacon. 
—To diffolve itfelf.—Thefe, and the like conceits, when 
men have cleared their underdanding by the light of expe¬ 
rience, will fcatter and break up like mid. Bacon.— To be¬ 
gin holidays; to be difmifled from buiinefs; 
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