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BREAKING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of breaking something
Example:
the breakage was unavoidable
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("breaking" is a kind of...):
change of integrity (the act of changing the unity or wholeness of something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "breaking"):
rupture (the act of making a sudden noisy break)
shattering; smashing (the act of breaking something into small pieces)
crack; cracking; fracture (the act of cracking something)
chip; chipping; splintering (the act of chipping something)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb break
Context examples:
The process of breaking down food into substances the body can use for energy, tissue growth, and repair.
(Digestion, NCI Dictionary)
Issue associated with material breaking into small fragments or particles.
(Disintegration of Medical Device Material, Food and Drug Administration)
Often refers to the arrangement of the side groups on a molecule which can freely rotate into different positions without breaking any bonds.
(Conformation, NCI Thesaurus)
Aredia may help keep bone from breaking down and prevent the loss of calcium from the bones.
(Aredia, NCI Dictionary)
On Tuesday night the new laundrymen arrived, and the rest of the week was spent breaking them into the routine.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
For the first time, chemists at the University of Illinois at Chicago have used a path-breaking optical imaging technique to pinpoint cholesterol's location and movement within the cell membrane.
(Researchers Zero-In on Cholesterol's Role in Cells, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
But these processes also disperse the gas and dust, breaking up dense clumps and reducing or halting new star formation.
('Space Butterfly' Is Home to Hundreds of Baby Stars, NASA)
“And no advice for me?” cried Blessington, in a breaking voice.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The extraterrestrial compounds found in meteorites resemble the active site of hydrogenases, which are enzymes that provide energy to bacteria and archaea by breaking down hydrogen gas (H2).
(Cyanide Compounds Discovered in Meteorites May Hold Clues to the Origin of Life, NASA)
This is likely the result of intense starlight breaking up atmospheric molecules and eroding away the atmospheres of some planets over time, leaving behind two populations.
(Citizen Scientists Find New World with NASA Telescope, NASA)
