tobreak
English
Alternative forms
- tobrake, to-break, to break
Etymology
From Middle English tobreken (“to break apart, break in pieces, shatter”), from Old English tōbrecan, tebrecan (“to break in pieces, break apart”), from Proto-West Germanic *tebrekan, from Proto-Germanic *tebrekaną (“to break apart”), equivalent to to- (“apart, in pieces”) + break. Cognate with Old Saxon tebrekan (“to break apart”), Middle Dutch tebreken (“to break apart, shatter”), German zerbrechen (“to break apart, shatter, smash”).
Verb
tobreak (third-person singular simple present tobreaks, present participle tobreaking, simple past tobroke, past participle tobroken)
- (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To break completely; crush.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Judges 9:53:
- And a certain woman cast a piece of a millstone upon Abimelech's head, and all tobrake his skull.
- (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To break apart; break in pieces.
See also
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