Break (To)

To become a bankrupt. (See Bankrupt.)

To break a bond. To dishonour it.

To break a journey. To stop before the journey is accomplished.

To break a matter to a person. To be the first to impart it, and to do so cautiously and by piecemeal.

To break bread. To partake of the Lord’s Supper.

“Upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached to them.”—Acts xx. 7.

To break one’s fast. To take food after long abstinence; to eat one’s breakfast after the night’s fast.

To break one’s neck. To dislocate the bones of one’s neck.

To break on the wheel. To torture one on a “wheel” by breaking the long bones with an iron bar. (Cf. Coup de GrÂce.)

To break a butterfly on a wheel. To employ superabundant effort in the accomplishment of a small matter.

“Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel,

Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel.”

Pope: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, 307–8.

To break out of bounds. To go beyond the prescribed limits.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

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