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Break into   /breɪk ɪntˈu/   Listen
verb
Break  v. i.  (past broke, obs. brake; past part. broken, obs. broke; pres. part. breaking)  
1.
To come apart or divide into two or more pieces, usually with suddenness and violence; to part; to burst asunder.
2.
To open spontaneously, or by pressure from within, as a bubble, a tumor, a seed vessel, a bag. "Else the bottle break, and the wine runneth out."
3.
To burst forth; to make its way; to come to view; to appear; to dawn. "The day begins to break, and night is fled." "And from the turf a fountain broke, and gurgled at our feet."
4.
To burst forth violently, as a storm. " The clouds are still above; and, while I speak, A second deluge o'er our head may break."
5.
To open up; to be scattered; to be dissipated; as, the clouds are breaking. "At length the darkness begins to break."
6.
To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength. "See how the dean begins to break; Poor gentleman! he droops apace."
7.
To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief; as, my heart is breaking.
8.
To fall in business; to become bankrupt. "He that puts all upon adventures doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty."
9.
To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait; as, to break into a run or gallop.
10.
To fail in musical quality; as, a singer's voice breaks when it is strained beyond its compass and a tone or note is not completed, but degenerates into an unmusical sound instead. Also, to change in tone, as a boy's voice at puberty.
11.
To fall out; to terminate friendship. "To break upon the score of danger or expense is to be mean and narrow-spirited." Note: With prepositions or adverbs: -
To break away, to disengage one's self abruptly; to come or go away against resistance. "Fear me not, man; I will not break away."
To break down.
(a)
To come down by breaking; as, the coach broke down.
(b)
To fail in any undertaking; to halt before successful completion; as, the negotiations broke down due to irreconcilable demands.
(c)
To cease functioning or to malfunction; as, the car broke down in the middle of the highway. "He had broken down almost at the outset."
To break forth, to issue; to come out suddenly, as sound, light, etc. "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning." Note: often with into in expressing or giving vent to one's feelings. "Break forth into singing, ye mountains."
To break from, to go away from abruptly. "This radiant from the circling crowd he broke."
To break into, to enter by breaking; as, to break into a house.
To break in upon, to enter or approach violently or unexpectedly. "This, this is he; softly awhile; let us not break in upon him."
To break loose.
(a)
To extricate one's self forcibly. "Who would not, finding way, break loose from hell?"
(b)
To cast off restraint, as of morals or propriety.
To break off.
(a)
To become separated by rupture, or with suddenness and violence.
(b)
To desist or cease suddenly. "Nay, forward, old man; do not break off so."
To break off from, to desist from; to abandon, as a habit.
To break out.
(a)
To burst forth; to escape from restraint; to appear suddenly, as a fire or an epidemic. "For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and stream in the desert."
(b)
To show itself in cutaneous eruptions; said of a disease.
(c)
To have a rash or eruption on the akin; said of a patient.
To break over, to overflow; to go beyond limits.
To break up.
(a)
To become separated into parts or fragments; as, the ice break up in the rivers; the wreck will break up in the next storm.
(b)
To disperse. "The company breaks up."
To break upon, to discover itself suddenly to; to dawn upon.
To break with.
(a)
To fall out; to sever one's relations with; to part friendship. "It can not be the Volsces dare break with us." "If she did not intend to marry Clive, she should have broken with him altogether."
(b)
To come to an explanation; to enter into conference; to speak. (Obs.) "I will break with her and with her father."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Break into" Quotes from Famous Books



... or orange trees, are the olives. Some of these are immensely old, numbering, it is said, five centuries, so that Petrarch may almost have rested beneath their shade on his way to Avignon. These veterans are cavernous with age: gnarled, split, and twisted trunks, throwing out arms that break into a hundred branches; every branch distinct, and feathered with innumerable sparks and spikelets of white, wavy, greenish light. These are the leaves, and the stems are grey with lichens. The sky and sea—two blues, one full of sunlight and ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece • John Addington Symonds
... of the enemy in numbers enabled him, by his left, to outflank the British; Sir Harry Smith, accordingly, ordered the troops to break into open columns and take ground to the right. The British line had advanced one hundred and fifty yards; it was now ten o'clock, and suddenly from the whole of the Khalsa position a fierce cannonade was opened. At first the balls fell short, but as the ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan
... every other necessary arrangement made; while we sat looking on, subject to the continual epithets of an old squaw, whose most consoling remarks were: "How will white man like to eat fire," and then she would break into a screeching laugh, which sounded perfectly hideous. A cold chill pervaded my frame as I gazed upon these ominous signs of death; but how often is our misery but the prelude of joy. At the moment that these horrid preparations were finished, ...
— The Path of Duty, and Other Stories • H. S. Caswell
... Father—there's no need to bluster in this fashion. Take up the poker and go and break into the door quiet and decent, like anyone else would do. And girls—off for your bonnets this moment I ...
— Six Plays • Florence Henrietta Darwin
... Chanter could have no possible use for so many dress boots at once, and it was a pity the beer should be wasted; but on the whole, perhaps, the materials were never meant for combination, and had better have been kept apart. Others had gone away to break into the kitchen, headed by one who had just come into college and vowed he would have some supper; and others, to screw up an unpopular tutor, or to break into the rooms of some inoffensive freshman. The remainder mustered on the grass in the ...
— Tom Brown at Oxford • Thomas Hughes


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