- an act, instance, or result of breaking down; specif.,
- a failure to work or function properly: breakdown of a machine, of authority, etc.
- a failure of health; physical, mental, or emotional collapse
- decomposition
- a separation into parts; analysis
- a lively, shuffling American country dance
This mans car has had a breakdown.
- When your car stops working and will no longer start, this is an example of a breakdown.
- When everyone loses respect for a teacher and stops listening to that teacher at all, this is an example of a breakdown of authority.
- When you tell your spouse to meet you at the restaurant you both like the best and he thinks that you mean a different restaurant and doesn't understand you correctly, this is an example of a breakdown of communication.
- When your boyfriend breaks up with you and you become severely depressed and try to kill yourself and need therapy, this is an example of a breakdown.
The definition of a breakdown is a mechanical failure, a collapse of a system of authority, a failure of a relationship or interaction, or a collapse of someone's mental health and a descent into permanent or temporary craziness.
YourDictionary definition and usage example. Copyright © 2018 by LoveToKnow Corp
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breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown
breakdown
Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Edition Copyright © 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"breakdown." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown>.
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breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown
breakdown
noun
- a. The act or process of failing to function or continue.b. The condition resulting from this: a breakdown in communication.
- Electricity The abrupt failure of an insulator or insulating medium to restrict the flow of current.
- A typically sudden collapse in physical or mental health.
- An analysis, an outline, or a summary consisting of itemized data or essentials.
- Disintegration or decomposition into parts or elements.
- a. A noisy, energetic American country dance.b. The music for this dance.
- A popular dance originating in the early 1970s, performed to funk music.
THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"breakdown." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown>.
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breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown
Noun
(plural breakdowns)
- A failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed
- We saw a breakdown by the side of the road.
- A physical collapse or lapse of mental stability
- After so much stress, he suffered a breakdown and simply gave up.
- Listing, division or categorization in great detail
- Looking at the breakdown of the budget, I see a few items we could cut.
- (chemistry) Breaking of chemical bonds within a compound to produce simpler compounds or elements.
- A musical technique, by where the music is stripped down, becoming simpler, and can vary in heaviness depending on the genre.
- (sports) A loss of organization (of the parts of a system).
- (US, dated) A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the blacks of the southern United States.
- (US, dated) Any crude, noisy dance performed by shuffling the feet, usually by one person at a time.
- (US) Any rapid bluegrass dance tune, especially featuring a five-string banjo.
- 'Foggy Mountain Breakdown'
English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.
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"breakdown." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown>.
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breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown
breakdown - Medical Definition
n.
- A typically sudden collapse in physical or mental health.
- Disintegration or decomposition into parts or elements.
The American Heritage Dictionary of Medicine © 2018 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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"breakdown." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 05 December 2018. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown>.
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breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved December 05th, 2018, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown
Sentence Examples
- In March, after breakdown long delay, the new Galician demands were definitely of 1870.
- The Prussian army ~.ad attained an unprecedented excellence of organization and discipline; the Prussian people, in spite of the parliamentary deadlock, were loyal and united; while in Austria army and state were alike disorganized by nationalist discontent and the breakdown of the centralized system.
- Christy died before the completion of the work, but Lartet continued it until his breakdown in health in 1870.
- When the time came, after the famous interview with Napoleon at Dresden, and the breakdown of the abortive congress of Prague, Austria threw in her lot with the allies.
- Uncertain what else to do aside from have a mental breakdown, Deidre accepted the tea.
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