Definition

Verb: 1. To escape or flee suddenly and often forcefully from confinement or control. 2. To end one's association or membership with a group, organization, or system, often to become independent. 3. To detach or become detached from something larger, either physically or figuratively.

Usage Examples

• Verb (Escape):
  • The horse broke away from its handler and galloped across the field.
  • Several prisoners managed to break away during the nighttime chaos.
• Verb (End Association):
  • The province voted to break away and form its own independent nation.
  • She decided to break away from the traditional company structure to start her own firm.
• Verb (Detach):
  • A large piece of ice broke away from the glacier and crashed into the sea.
  • He tried to break away a small piece of the chocolate bar to share.

Advanced Usage

• "to break away from tradition/convention": To stop following traditional or conventional ways of doing things.
  • The designer's new collection breaks away from the conventions of formal wear.

Variants and Related Words

• Breakaway (noun/adjective): Used to describe a group that has separated or the act of separating.
  • The breakaway faction formed its own political party. (adjective)
  • The cyclist made a decisive breakaway from the pack. (noun)

Synonyms

• Escape, flee, bolt, run off.
• Secede, withdraw, split off, separate.
• Detach, come off, split, fragment.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Break free: Very similar to "break away," emphasizing achieving freedom from restraint.
  • The animal struggled to break free from the trap.
• Break off: To separate a piece from something or to end a relationship or discussion abruptly.
  • He broke off a branch from the tree.
  • The two countries broke off diplomatic relations.

Related Idioms

• Make a clean break: To end a relationship or situation completely and finally.
  • After the argument, she decided to make a clean break and move to a new city.

Verb

1. flee; take to one's heels; cut and run
   • If you see this man, run!
   • The burglars escaped before the police showed up
2. withdraw from an organization or communion
   • After the break up of the Soviet Union, many republics broke away
3. interrupt a continued activity
   • She had broken with the traditional patterns
4. break off (a piece from a whole)
   • Her tooth chipped
5. move away or escape suddenly
   • The horses broke from the stable
   • Three inmates broke jail
   • Nobody can break out--this prison is high security