break (see also BROKEN)
1.
to cut open (a
person's head)
Wiv. I. i. 126
“I broke your
head,”
Err. I. ii. 79
“I shall that merry sconce
of yours,”
II. i. 78
“I will thy pate
across”
; similarly
Rom. I. iii. 38
“the day before she
broke her brow.”
2.
to crack (a joke)
Shr. IV. v. 72
“to break a jest Upon
the company,”
Troil. I. iii. 148;
similarly
Ado II. i. 154
“break a comparison or
two upon me,”
II. iii. 256
“remnants of wit broken
on me.”
3.
to reveal, disclose
H5 V. ii. 264
“break thy mind to
me,”
1H6 I. iii. 82,
Mac. I. vii. 48
“break this enterprise
to me”
; (hence) intr. construed with “with” or “to,” to make a
revelation or disclosure
Gent. III. i. 59
“to break with thee of
some affairs,”
Ado I. i. 319
“I will break with her,
and with her father,”
336 “to her father will
I break,”
H8 V. i. 47.
4.
to open
(negotiations) Tit. V. iii.
19*
“break the parle” (or
?=‘break off’).
5.
to interrupt
Wiv. III. iv. 22
“ their
talk,”
2H4 IV. v. 65
“have broke their sleep
with thoughts,”
Ant. IV. xii. [xiv.] 31 “a
tearing groan did break The name of
Antony.”
6.
to make docile, train
“to”
Err. III. i. 77
“thou wantest
breaking,”
Shr. II. i. 148
“break her to the
lute?”
7.
intr. to disband,
disperse All'sW. IV. iv. 11.
8.
to become bankrupt,
fail Mer.V. III. i. 123,
(quibblingly) Rom. III. ii.
57.
9.
of darkness: to be
dispersed by light R3 V. iii.
87.
10.
intr. and pass. to
fall out or quarrel (“with”)
Gent. II. v. 19
“What, are they
broken?”
Cor. IV. vi. 49
“It cannot be The
Volsces dare break with us.”
