Definition

1. Verb (transitive):

   • To cause to separate into pieces or fragments: To shatter, smash, or disintegrate something.
   • To cause to disperse or scatter: To cause a group of people or things to separate and move apart.
   • To end a relationship or association: To terminate a personal, romantic, or professional connection.
   • To dissolve or cause to dissolve: To mix a solid substance into a liquid until it forms a solution, or to formally terminate an official body.

2. Verb (intransitive):

   • To separate into pieces or fragments: To shatter or disintegrate.
   • To disperse or scatter: For a group of people or things to separate and move apart.
   • To end a relationship or association: For a romantic couple, partnership, or group to terminate their connection.
   • To come to an end: For an event, meeting, or situation to conclude.

Usage Examples

• Verb (transitive):

  • The police arrived to break up the fight. (To cause a group to disperse)
  • She used a hammer to break up the large rock. (To cause to separate into pieces)
  • The news broke up their long friendship. (To end a relationship)
  • The chemist will break up the compound into its basic elements. (To separate substances)

• Verb (intransitive):

  • The meeting will break up at noon. (To come to an end)
  • The crowd began to break up after the speech. (To disperse)
  • I heard that Mark and Lisa broke up last week. (To end a romantic relationship)
  • The iceberg started to break up in the warmer water. (To separate into pieces)

Advanced Usage

• "to break up with someone": To end a romantic relationship with a specific person.

  • He was very sad after she broke up with him.

• "to break something up into something": To divide something into smaller parts or categories.

  • The teacher broke the project up into three phases.

Variants and Related Words

• Breakup (n): The act or instance of ending a relationship or dispersing.

  • The breakup of the company was announced today.

• Broken up (adj): Emotionally distressed, especially due to the end of a relationship.

  • She was broken up about the divorce.

Synonyms

• Disperse: To scatter or spread over a wide area.
• Separate: To cause to move or be apart.
• Split up: To end a relationship or divide into parts.
• Dissolve: To formally end or cause to disappear into a liquid.

Related Phrasal Verbs

• Break down: To stop functioning; to lose emotional control; to separate into components for analysis.

  • The car broke down on the highway. (Stopped functioning)
  • He broke down and cried. (Lost emotional control)

• Break off: To separate a piece from something; to end abruptly.

  • She broke off a piece of chocolate.
  • The two countries broke off diplomatic relations.

Related Idioms

• Break it up!: A command telling people to stop fighting or to disperse.

  • The officer yelled, "Break it up!" to the crowd.

• Break up the monotony: To add variety to something that is boring or repetitive.

  • Let's go for a walk to break up the monotony of studying.

Verb

1. laugh unrestrainedly
2. separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts
3. cause to separate
   • break up kidney stones
   • disperse particles
4. break or cause to break into pieces
   • The plate fragmented
5. come to an end
   • Their marriage dissolved
   • The tobacco monopoly broke up
6. bring the association of to an end or cause to break up
   • The decree officially dissolved the marriage
   • the judge dissolved the tobacco company
7. close at the end of a session
   • The court adjourned
8. release ice
   • The icebergs and glaciers calve
9. attack with or as if with a pickaxe of ice or rocky ground, for example
   • Pick open the ice
10. set or keep apart
    • sever a relationship
11. destroy the completeness of a set of related items
    • The book dealer would not break the set
12. take apart into its constituent pieces
13. suffer a nervous breakdown
14. cause to go into a solution
    • The recipe says that we should dissolve a cup of sugar in two cups of water
15. make a break in
    • We interrupt the program for the following messages
16. break violently or noisily; smash;
17. come apart
    • the group broke up
18. discontinue an association or relation; go different ways
    • The business partners broke over a tax question
    • The couple separated after 25 years of marriage
    • My friend and I split up
19. to cause to separate and go in different directions
    • She waved her hand and scattered the crowds