- 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
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"breakdown." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown>.
APA Style
breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, 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.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"breakdown." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown>.
APA Style
breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, 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.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"breakdown." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown>.
APA Style
breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, 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.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"breakdown." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown>.
APA Style
breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, 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.
Link to this page
Cite this page
MLA Style
"breakdown." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 14 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown>.
APA Style
breakdown. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/breakdown
Sentence Examples
- In March, after breakdown long delay, the new Galician demands were definitely of 1870.
- Christy died before the completion of the work, but Lartet continued it until his breakdown in health in 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.
- 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.
» more...