breaker
English edit
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English breker, brekere, equivalent to break + -er. Cognate with Dutch breker, German Brecher.
Pronunciation edit
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbɹeɪkə/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - (US) enPR: brāʹkər, IPA(key): /ˈbɹeɪkɚ/
- Rhymes: -eɪkə(ɹ)
Noun edit
breaker (plural breakers)
- Something that breaks.
- A machine for breaking rocks, or for breaking coal at the mines.
- The building in which such a machine is placed.
- A person who specializes in breaking things.
- (chiefly in the plural) A wave breaking into foam against the shore, or against a sandbank, or a rock or reef near the surface, considered a useful warning to ships of an underwater hazard
- 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 53, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC, pages 279–280:
- Now and then in the lagoon you hear the leaping of a fish […]. And above all, ceaseless like time, is the dull roar of the breakers on the reef.
- 1925, Ezra Pound, Canto I:
- And then went down to the ship,
Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea
- 1979, Stan Rogers (lyrics and music), “The Flowers of Bermuda” (track 6), in Between the Breaks ... Live!, Dundas, Ontario: Fogarty's Cove Music:
- There came a cry "Oh, there be breakers dead ahead!" / From the collier Nightingale
- (colloquial) A breakdancer.
- (US, dated) A user of CB radio.
- 2015, Dave Wise, Stuart Wise, Like A Summer With A Thousand Julys:
- Their radios had been blocked by a breaker calling himself Yankee Bucket Mouth.
- (primarily plural) Clipping of shipbreaker.
- (electrical engineering) Ellipsis of circuit breaker.
- breaker panel
- A horsebreaker.
- 1831-1850, William Youatt, On the Structure and the Diseases of the Horse
- A hasty and passionate breaker will often make a really goodtempered young horse an inveterate gibber
- 1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:
- "My beauty endures even as I endure; still, if thou wilt, oh rash man, have thy will; but blame not me if passion mount thy reason, as the Egyptian breakers used to mount a colt, and guide it whither thou wilt not."
- 1831-1850, William Youatt, On the Structure and the Diseases of the Horse
Synonyms edit
- (something that breaks): destroyer, wrecker
- (machine for breaking rocks or coal):
- (building containing such a machine):
- (wave):
- (breakdancer): B-boy (male), B-girl (female), breakdancer
Derived terms edit
- backbreaker
- ball-breaker
- bead breaker
- breaker bar
- breaker boy
- breaker-inner
- breaker's yard
- brick breaker
- circuit breaker
- circuit-breaker
- codebreaker
- combo breaker
- deal breaker
- groundbreaker
- heart breaker
- heartbreaker
- homebreaker
- horse-breaker
- horsebreaker
- house breaker
- house-breaker
- housebreaker
- ice breaker
- icebreaker
- ice-breaker
- jailbreaker
- jaw-breaker
- jawbreaker
- law-breaker
- lawbreaker
- leg breaker
- leg-breaker
- matchbreaker
- nutbreaker
- oathbreaker
- pathbreaker
- peacebreaker
- rulebreaker
- Sabbath-breaker
- safebreaker
- shipbreaker
- slave breaker
- stonebreaker
- strikebreaker
- sword-breaker
- tie breaker
- tiebreaker
- tie-breaker
- trucebreaker
- visbreaker
- water breaker
- water-breaker
- windbreaker
- wind breaker
Translations edit
something that breaks
machine for breaking rocks or coal
building containing such a machine
small cask of water in case of shipwreck
|
wave
|
breakdancer — see breakdancer
Interjection edit
breaker
- (US, dated) Used to open a conversation or call for a response on CB radio.
- Breaker one nine
- 1977, Smokey and the Bandit, spoken by Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason):
- Breaker to the Bandit
See also edit
Etymology 2 edit
Probably from Spanish barrica (“barrel”). Doublet of barrique.
Noun edit
breaker (plural breakers)
- A small cask of liquid kept permanently in a ship's boat in case of shipwreck.
- 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet, London, Toronto, Ont.: Jonathan Cape, published 1934:
- Then the conversation broke off, and there was little more talking, only a noise of men going backwards and forwards, and of putting down of kegs and the hollow gurgle of good liquor being poured from breakers into the casks.
Anagrams edit
French edit
Etymology 1 edit
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
breaker m (plural breakers)
- circuit breaker
- Synonym: disjoncteur
Etymology 2 edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
breaker
Conjugation edit
Conjugation of breaker (see also Appendix:French verbs)
infinitive | simple | breaker | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
compound | avoir + past participle | ||||||
present participle or gerund1 | simple | breakant /bʁɛ.kɑ̃/ or /bʁe.kɑ̃/ | |||||
compound | ayant + past participle | ||||||
past participle | breaké /bʁɛ.ke/ or /bʁe.ke/ | ||||||
singular | plural | ||||||
first | second | third | first | second | third | ||
indicative | je (j’) | tu | il, elle, on | nous | vous | ils, elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | breake /bʁɛk/ |
breakes /bʁɛk/ |
breake /bʁɛk/ |
breakons /bʁɛ.kɔ̃/ or /bʁe.kɔ̃/ |
breakez /bʁɛ.ke/ or /bʁe.ke/ |
breakent /bʁɛk/ |
imperfect | breakais /bʁɛ.kɛ/ or /bʁe.kɛ/ |
breakais /bʁɛ.kɛ/ or /bʁe.kɛ/ |
breakait /bʁɛ.kɛ/ or /bʁe.kɛ/ |
breakions /bʁɛ.kjɔ̃/ or /bʁe.kjɔ̃/ |
breakiez /bʁɛ.kje/ or /bʁe.kje/ |
breakaient /bʁɛ.kɛ/ or /bʁe.kɛ/ | |
past historic2 | breakai /bʁɛ.ke/ or /bʁe.ke/ |
breakas /bʁɛ.ka/ or /bʁe.ka/ |
breaka /bʁɛ.ka/ or /bʁe.ka/ |
breakâmes /bʁɛ.kam/ or /bʁe.kam/ |
breakâtes /bʁɛ.kat/ or /bʁe.kat/ |
breakèrent /bʁɛ.kɛʁ/ or /bʁe.kɛʁ/ | |
future | breakerai /bʁɛ.kʁe/ or /bʁe.kʁe/ |
breakeras /bʁɛ.kʁa/ or /bʁe.kʁa/ |
breakera /bʁɛ.kʁa/ or /bʁe.kʁa/ |
breakerons /bʁɛ.kʁɔ̃/ or /bʁe.kʁɔ̃/ |
breakerez /bʁɛ.kʁe/ or /bʁe.kʁe/ |
breakeront /bʁɛ.kʁɔ̃/ or /bʁe.kʁɔ̃/ | |
conditional | breakerais /bʁɛ.kʁɛ/ or /bʁe.kʁɛ/ |
breakerais /bʁɛ.kʁɛ/ or /bʁe.kʁɛ/ |
breakerait /bʁɛ.kʁɛ/ or /bʁe.kʁɛ/ |
breakerions /bʁɛ.kə.ʁjɔ̃/ or /bʁe.kə.ʁjɔ̃/ |
breakeriez /bʁɛ.kə.ʁje/ or /bʁe.kə.ʁje/ |
breakeraient /bʁɛ.kʁɛ/ or /bʁe.kʁɛ/ | |
(compound tenses) |
present perfect | present indicative of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect | imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle | ||||||
past anterior2 | past historic of avoir + past participle | ||||||
future perfect | future of avoir + past participle | ||||||
conditional perfect | conditional of avoir + past participle | ||||||
subjunctive | que je (j’) | que tu | qu’il, qu’elle | que nous | que vous | qu’ils, qu’elles | |
(simple tenses) |
present | breake /bʁɛk/ |
breakes /bʁɛk/ |
breake /bʁɛk/ |
breakions /bʁɛ.kjɔ̃/ or /bʁe.kjɔ̃/ |
breakiez /bʁɛ.kje/ or /bʁe.kje/ |
breakent /bʁɛk/ |
imperfect2 | breakasse /bʁɛ.kas/ or /bʁe.kas/ |
breakasses /bʁɛ.kas/ or /bʁe.kas/ |
breakât /bʁɛ.ka/ or /bʁe.ka/ |
breakassions /bʁɛ.ka.sjɔ̃/ or /bʁe.ka.sjɔ̃/ |
breakassiez /bʁɛ.ka.sje/ or /bʁe.ka.sje/ |
breakassent /bʁɛ.kas/ or /bʁe.kas/ | |
(compound tenses) |
past | present subjunctive of avoir + past participle | |||||
pluperfect2 | imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle | ||||||
imperative | – | – | – | ||||
simple | — | breake /bʁɛk/ |
— | breakons /bʁɛ.kɔ̃/ or /bʁe.kɔ̃/ |
breakez /bʁɛ.ke/ or /bʁe.ke/ |
— | |
compound | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | simple imperative of avoir + past participle | — | |
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en. | |||||||
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way:
(Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81). |
Derived terms edit
Spanish edit
Noun edit
breaker m (uncountable)