outbreak

English

Etymology

From Middle English outbreken, oute-breken, from Old English ūtābrecan (“to break out”), equivalent to out- +‎ break. Cognate with Saterland Frisian uutbreeke (“to break out; burst out”), West Frisian útbrekke (“to break out”), Dutch uitbreken (“to break out, burst out”), German ausbrechen (“to break out, erupt”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈaʊtbɹeɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: out‧break

Noun

outbreak (plural outbreaks)

1. An eruption; the sudden appearance of a rash, disease, etc.

   Any epidemic outbreak causes understandable panic.

2. A sudden increase.

   There has been an outbreak of vandalism at the school.

3. (figurative) An outburst or sudden eruption, especially of violence and mischief.

   There has been an outbreak of broken windows in the street.

4. Synonym of breakout (“escape from prison”)

Synonyms

• (figurative outburst): outburst, tumult

Antonyms

• inbreak

Derived terms

• sun outage

 

Translations

an eruption, sudden appearance

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: изригване n (izrigvane)
• Catalan: brot (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: udbrud n
• Dutch: uitbarsting (nl), uitbraak (nl) n
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: purkaus (fi), puhkeaminen (fi)
• French: éruption (fr) f, déclenchement (fr), apparition (fr)
• German: Ausbruch (de) m, Auftreten (de) n, Entfesselung f
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: ráig f
• Italian: scoppio (it) m, insorgenza (it) f,
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: kautorohītanga, kaitorohītanga
• Persian: شیوع (fa) (šoyu')
• Polish: wybuch (pl) m
• Portuguese: surto (pt) m
• Romanian: izbucnire (ro) f
• Russian: вспы́шка (ru) f (vspýška), взрыв (ru) m (vzryv)
• Spanish: brote (es) m, irrupción (es) f
• Welsh: cychwyn (cy) m, cychwyniad m, tarddiant m

a sudden increase

• Bulgarian: изблик (bg) m (izblik)
• Danish: bølge (da) c
• Dutch: uitbarsting (nl), explosie (nl)
• Finnish: aalto (fi)
• French: explosion (fr)
• German: sprunghafter Anstieg, plötzliche Zunahme, Massenvermehrung f (biol.), Schwemme (de) f
• Italian: diffusione (it) f
• Persian: شیوع (fa) (šoyu')
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can

(fig.) an outburst or sudden eruption, especially violent

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: въстание (bg) n (vǎstanie)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: uitbarsting (nl), uitbreken (nl) n
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: purkaus (fi), puhkeaminen (fi)
• French: éruption (fr), explosion (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: Ausbruch (de) m, plötzliches Auftreten, Lawine (de) f, Flut (de) f
• Hungarian: please add this translation if you can
• Irish: ráig f
• Italian: esplosione (it) f, eruzione (it) f
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: wybuch (pl) m
• Romanian: izbucnire (ro) f
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Welsh: ffrwydrad (cy) m

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} éruption (fr) f

Verb

outbreak (third-person singular simple present outbreaks, present participle outbreaking, simple past outbroke, past participle outbroken)

1. (intransitive) To burst out or break forth.

See also

• breakout

Anagrams

• break out, breakout, kabouter, outbrake