Break

1. n. See Commutator.
2. v. t. To strain apart; to sever by fracture; to divide with violence; as, to break a rope or chain; to break a seal; to break an axle; to break rocks or coal; to break a lock.
3. v. t. To lay open as by breaking; to divide; as, to break a package of goods.
4. v. t. To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate.
5. v. t. To infringe or violate, as an obligation, law, or promise.
6. v. t. To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate; as, to break silence; to break one’s sleep; to break one’s journey.
7. v. t. To destroy the completeness of; to remove a part from; as, to break a set.
8. v. t. To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce; as, the cavalry were not able to break the British squares.
9. v. t. To shatter to pieces; to reduce to fragments.
10. v. t. To exchange for other money or currency of smaller denomination; as, to break a five dollar bill.
11. 1n. 1 See Commutator.
12. 1v. t. 1 To strain apart; to sever by fracture; to divide with violence; as, to break a rope or chain; to break a seal; to break an axle; to break rocks or coal; to break a lock.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.