broken (the foll. are special uses: 1 cf. southmidland dial. ‘broken-mouthed’ = having lost teeth; R3 II. ii. 117* “The broken rancour of your high-swoln hearts” (so Qq; Ff “hates”), ‘your quarrels (or spirits) which had risen high and broken out into rancour’)
1.
fragmentary, incomplete; “broken meats,” remains of food, as
eaten by servants
Lr. II. ii. 15
“A knave, a rascal, an
eater of broken meats”
;
All'sW. II. iii. 66
“My mouth no more were
broken”
(=having gaps in the teeth),
H5 V. ii. 264
“broken English.”
2.
interrupted
Wint. V. ii. 10
“broken
delivery,”
H8 I. iv. 61
“broken banquet,”
Troil. IV. iv. 48
“broken tears”
(i.e. broken with sobs).
3.
ruined, bankrupt
AYL. II. i. 57
“that poor and broken
bankrupt,”
R2 II. i. 258
“bankrupt, like a broken
man”
(?=outlaw, the regular meaning in old Scotch
law),
Cym. V. iv. 19
“broken debtors.”
4.
“broken music,” music
arranged for parts, concerted music (with a pun)
AYL. I. ii. 151, H5 V. ii. 262, Troil. III. i. 53.
5.
“broken bosoms,” broken
hearts Compl. 254.
