different between break vs blank

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: br?k, IPA^(key): /b?e?k/, [b??e??k]
• Rhymes: -e?k
• Homophone: brake

Etymology 1

From Middle English breken, from Old English brecan (“to break”), from Proto-West Germanic *brekan, from Proto-Germanic *brekan? (“to break”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?reg- (“to break”). The word is a doublet of bray.

Verb

break (third-person singular simple present breaks, present participle breaking, simple past broke or (archaic) brake, past participle broken or (colloquial) broke)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To separate into two or more pieces, to fracture or crack, by a process that cannot easily be reversed for reassembly.
   1. (transitive, intransitive) To crack or fracture (bone) under a physical strain.

2. (transitive) To divide (something, often money) into smaller units.

3. (transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of.
   • 1613, William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, Henry VIII, Act IV, Sc. 2:

     An old man, broken with the storms of state,

     Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;

     Give him a little earth for charity

   1. To turn an animal into a beast of burden.
      • 2002, John Fusco, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron

        Colonel: See, gentlemen? Any horse could be broken.

4. (intransitive) To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief.

5. (transitive) To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate.
   1. (transitive, theater) To end the run of (a play).
      • 1958, Walter Macqueen-Pope, St. James's: Theatre of Distinction (page 134)

        In July Alexander broke the run and went on tour, as was his custom. He believed in keeping in touch with provincial audiences and how wise he was!

      • 1986, Kurt Gänzl, The British Musical Theatre: 1865-1914 (page 610)

        After Camberwell he broke the play's season and brought it back in the autumn with a few revisions and a noticeably strengthened cast but without any special success.

6. (transitive) To ruin financially.

   • With arts like these rich Matho, when he speaks, / Attracts all fees, and little lawyers breaks.

7. (transitive) To violate, to not adhere to.
8. (intransitive, of a fever) To pass the most dangerous part of the illness; to go down, in terms of temperature.

   Susan's fever broke at about 3 AM, and the doctor said the worst was over.

9. (intransitive, of a spell of settled weather) To end.

10. (intransitive, of a storm) To begin; to end.

11. (intransitive, of morning, dawn, day etc.) To arrive.
12. (transitive, gaming slang) To render (a game) unchallenging by altering its rules or exploiting loopholes or weaknesses in them in a way that gives a player an unfair advantage.

13. (transitive, intransitive) To stop, or to cause to stop, functioning properly or altogether.
    1. (specifically, in programming) To cause (some feature of a program or piece of software) to stop functioning properly; to cause a regression.

14. (transitive) To cause (a barrier) to no longer bar.
    1. (specifically) To cause the shell of (an egg) to crack, so that the inside (yolk) is accessible.
    2. (specifically) To open (a safe) without using the correct key, combination, or the like.
15. (transitive) To destroy the arrangement of; to throw into disorder; to pierce.

16. (intransitive, of a wave of water) To collapse into surf, after arriving in shallow water.
17. (intransitive) To burst forth; to make its way; to come into view.
    • 1800, William Wordsworth, The Fountain

      And from the turf a fountain broke, / And gurgled at our feet.

18. (intransitive) To interrupt or cease one's work or occupation temporarily.

19. (transitive) To interrupt (a fall) by inserting something so that the falling object does not (immediately) hit something else beneath.

20. (transitive, ergative) To disclose or make known an item of news, etc.

21. (intransitive, of a sound) To become audible suddenly.
    • c. 1843,, George Lippard, The Battle-Day of Germantown, reprinted in Washington and His Generals "1776", page 45 [2]:

      Like the crash of thunderbolts[...], the sound of musquetry broke over the lawn, [...].

22. (transitive) To change a steady state abruptly.

23. (copulative, informal) To suddenly become.

24. (intransitive) Of a male voice, to become deeper at puberty.
25. (intransitive) Of a voice, to alter in type due to emotion or strain: in men generally to go up, in women sometimes to go down; to crack.

26. (transitive) To surpass or do better than (a specific number), to do better than (a record), setting a new record.

27. (sports and games):
    1. (transitive, tennis) To win a game (against one's opponent) as receiver.
    2. (intransitive, billiards, snooker, pool) To make the first shot; to scatter the balls from the initial neat arrangement.

    3. (transitive, backgammon) To remove one of the two men on (a point).
28. (transitive, military, most often in the passive tense) To demote, to reduce the military rank of.
    • 1953 February 9, “Books: First Rulers of Asia”, in Time:

      And he played no favorites: when his son-in-law sacked a city he had been told to spare, Genghis broke him to private.

    • 1968, William Manchester, The Arms of Krupp, Back Bay (2003), ?ISBN, page 215:

      One morning after the budget had failed to balance Finanzminister von Scholz picked up Der Reichsanzeiger and found he had been broken to sergeant.

    • 2006, Peter Collier, Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty, Second Edition, Artisan Books, ?ISBN, page 42:

      Not long after this event, Clausen became involved in another disciplinary situation and was broken to private—the only one to win the Medal of Honor in Vietnam.

29. (transitive) To end (a connection), to disconnect.

30. (intransitive, of an emulsion) To demulsify.
31. (intransitive, sports) To counter-attack
32. (transitive, obsolete) To lay open, as a purpose; to disclose, divulge, or communicate.
33. (intransitive) To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength.
    • 1731, Jonathan Swift, Verses on His Own Death

      See how the dean begins to break; / Poor gentleman he droops apace.

34. (intransitive, obsolete) To fail in business; to become bankrupt.
    • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Riches

      He that puts all upon adventures doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty.

35. (transitive) To destroy the strength, firmness, or consistency of.

36. (transitive) To destroy the official character and standing of; to cashier; to dismiss.
    • January 11, 1711, Jonathan Swift, The Examiner No. 24

      when I see a great officer broke.

37. (intransitive) To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait.

38. (intransitive, archaic) To fall out; to terminate friendship.
    • c. 1700 Jeremy Collier, On Friendship

      To break upon the score of danger or expense is to be mean and narrow-spirited.

39. (computing) To terminate the execution of a program before normal completion.
40. (programming) To suspend the execution of a program during debugging so that the state of the program can be investigated.

Conjugation

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:break.

Synonyms

• (ergative: separate into two or more pieces): burst, bust, shatter, shear, smash, split
• (ergative: crack (bone)): crack, fracture
• (transitive: turn an animal into a beast of burden): break in, subject, tame
• (transitive: do that which is forbidden by): contravene, go against, violate
• (intransitive: stop functioning): break down, bust, fail, go down (of a computer or computer network)

Antonyms

• (transitive: cause to end up in two or more pieces): assemble, fix, join, mend, put together, repair
• (tennis, intransitive: break serve): hold

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Coordinate terms

• bork
• breaking
• broke
• broken

Translations

Noun

break (plural breaks)

1. An instance of breaking something into two or more pieces.

2. A physical space that opens up in something or between two things.

3. A rest or pause, usually from work.

4. (Britain) a time for students to talk or play.
5. A short holiday.

6. A temporary split with a romantic partner.

7. An interval or intermission between two parts of a performance, for example a theatre show, broadcast, or sports game.
8. A significant change in circumstance, attitude, perception, or focus of attention.

9. The beginning (of the morning).

10. An act of escaping.

11. (computing) The separation between lines, paragraphs or pages of a written text.
    • 2001, Nan Barber, ?David Reynolds, Office 2001 for Macintosh: The Missing Manual (page 138)

      No matter how much text you add above the break, the text after the break will always appear at the top of a new page.

12. (computing) A keystroke or other signal that causes a program to terminate or suspend execution.
13. (programming) Short for breakpoint.
14. (Britain, weather) A change, particularly the end of a spell of persistent good or bad weather.
15. (sports and games):
    2. (tennis) A game won by the receiving player(s).
    3. (billiards, snooker, pool) The first shot in a game of billiards
    4. (snooker) The number of points scored by one player in one visit to the table
    5. (soccer) The counter-attack
    6. (surfing) A place where waves break (that is, where waves pitch or spill forward creating white water).

16. (dated) A large four-wheeled carriage, having a straight body and calash top, with the driver's seat in front and the footman's behind.
17. (equitation) A sharp bit or snaffle.
    • 1576, George Gascoigne, The Steele Glas

      Pampered jades […] which need nor break nor bit.

18. (music) A short section of music, often between verses, in which some performers stop while others continue.

19. (music) The point in the musical scale at which a woodwind instrument is designed to overblow, that is, to move from its lower to its upper register.

20. (geography, chiefly in the plural) An area along a river that features steep banks, bluffs, or gorges (e.g., Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, US).
21. (obsolete, slang) error [late 19th–early 20th c.]

Usage notes

• music The instruments that are named are the ones that carry on playing, for example a fiddle break implies that the fiddle is the most prominent instrument playing during the break.

Synonyms

• (instance of breaking something into two pieces): split
• (physical space that opens up in something or between two things): breach, gap, space; see also Thesaurus:interspace or Thesaurus:hole
• (rest or pause, usually from work): time-out; see also Thesaurus:pause
• (time for playing outside): playtime (UK), recess (US)
• (short holiday): day off, time off; see also Thesaurus:vacation
• (beginning of the morning): crack of dawn; see also Thesaurus:dawn
• (error): See Thesaurus:error

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Clipping of breakdown (the percussion break of songs chosen by a DJ for use in hip-hop music) and see also breakdancing.

Noun

break (plural breaks)

1. (music) A section of extended repetition of the percussion break to a song, created by a hip-hop DJ as rhythmic dance music.

Derived terms

• Amen break

References

• break at OneLook Dictionary Search
• 2001. The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: North America. Garland Publishing. Ellen Koskoff (Ed.). Pgs. 694-695.

Anagrams

• Abrek, Baker, Brake, baker, barke, brake

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b??k/

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English break.

Noun

break m (plural breaks)

1. break (pause, holiday)

   Synonym: pause

2. (tennis) break (of serve)

Derived terms

• balle de break

Etymology 2

From earlier break de chasse, from English shooting brake.

Noun

break m (plural breaks)

1. (automotive) estate car, station wagon

   Antonym: berline

References

• “break” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English break.

Noun

break m (invariable)

1. break (intermission or brief suspension of activity)

Interjection

break

1. break! (boxing)

Spanish

Noun

break m (plural breaks)

1. break (pause)
2. (tennis) break

English

Etymology

From Middle English blank, blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Anglo-Norman blonc, blaunc, blaunche, from Old French blanc, feminine blanche, from Frankish *blank (“gleaming, white, blinding”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz (“white, bright, blinding”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?ley?- (“to shine”). Akin to Old High German blanch (“shining, bright, white”) (German blank), Old English blanc (“white, grey”), blanca (“white steed”), Spanish blanco. More at blink, blind, blanch. Doublet of blanc.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blæ?k/
• Rhymes: -æ?k

Adjective

blank (comparative blanker or more blank, superlative blankest or most blank)

1. (archaic) White or pale; without colour.
2. Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in

   blank paper

   a blank check

   a blank ballot

   a blank CD

3. (sports) Scoreless; without any goals or points.
4. (figuratively) Lacking characteristics which give variety; uniform.

   a blank desert; a blank wall; blank unconsciousness

5. Absolute; downright; sheer.

   There was a look of blank terror on his face.

   a blank refusal to cooperate

6. Without expression.

   Failing to understand the question, he gave me a blank stare.

7. Utterly confounded or discomfited.
8. Empty; void; without result; fruitless.

9. Devoid of thoughts, memory, or inspiration.

10. (military) Of ammunition: having propellant but no bullets; unbulleted.

Descendants

• Belizean Creole: blank

Translations

Noun

blank (plural blanks)

1. (archaic, historical, obsolete) A small French coin, originally of silver, afterwards of copper, worth 5 deniers; also a silver coin of Henry V current in the parts of France then held by the English, worth about 8 pence [15th–17th century].

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Nares to this entry?)
2. (obsolete) A nonplus [16th century].
3. The white spot in the centre of a target; hence (figuratively) the object to which anything is directed or aimed, the range of such aim [since the 16th century].
4. A lot by which nothing is gained; a ticket in a lottery on which no prize is indicated [since the 16th century].
5. An empty space; a void, for example on a paper [since the 16th century].
   1. A space to be filled in on a form or template.

      Write your answers in the blanks.

   2. Provisional words printed in italics (instead of blank spaces) in a bill before Parliament, being matters of practical detail, of which the final form will be settled in Committee [since the 19th century].
6. (now chiefly US) A document, paper, or form with spaces left blank to be filled up at the pleasure of the person to whom it is given (e.g. a blank charter, ballot, form, contract, etc.), or as the event may determine; a blank form [since the 16th century].
   1. An empty form without substance; anything insignificant; nothing at all [since the 17th century].
   2. An unprinted leaf of a book [20th century].
7. (literature) Blank verse [since the 16th century].
8. (mechanics, engineering) A piece of metal (such as a coin, screw, nuts), cut and shaped to the required size of the thing to be made, and ready for the finishing operations; (coining) the disc of metal before stamping [since the 16th century].
   1. Any article of glass on which subsequent processing is required [since the 19th century].
   2. (electric recording) The shaved wax ready for placing on a recording machine for making wax records with a stylus [20th century].
9. (figuratively) A vacant space, place, or period; a void [since the 17th century].
10. The ¹ / ₂₃₀₄₀₀ of a grain [17th century].
11. An empty space in one's memory; a forgotten item or memory [since the 18th century].
12. A dash written in place of an omitted letter or word [since the 18th century]
13. The space character; the character resulting from pressing the space-bar on a keyboard.
14. (dominoes) A domino without points on one or both of its divisions.

    the double blank

    the six blank

15. (firearms) Short for blank cartridge. [since the 19th century].
16. (figuratively, in the expression ‘shooting blanks’, sports) An ineffective effort which achieves nothing [since the 20th century].
    1. (chemistry) A sample for a control experiment that does not contain any of the analyte of interest, in order to deliberately produce a non-detection to verify that a detection is distinguishable from it.
    2. (slang) Infertile semen.

Synonyms

• (bullet that doesn't harm): blank cartridge, blank bullet

Translations

Verb

blank (third-person singular simple present blanks, present participle blanking, simple past and past participle blanked)

1. (transitive) To make void; to erase.

   I blanked out my previous entry.

2. (transitive, slang) To ignore (a person) deliberately.

   She blanked me for no reason.

3. (transitive, aviation, of a control surface) To render ineffective by blanketing with turbulent airflow, such as from aircraft wake or reverse thrust.

4. (transitive) To prevent from scoring, for example in a sporting event.

   The team was blanked.

   England blanks Wales to advance to the final.

5. (intransitive) To become blank.
6. (intransitive) To be temporarily unable to remember.

   I'm blanking on her name right now.

Usage notes

• Almost any sense of this can occur with out. See blank out.

Translations

Derived terms

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch blank.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bla?k/

Adjective

blank (attributive blanke, comparative blanker, superlative blankste)

1. white
2. White; Caucasian

Antonyms

• swart

Dalmatian

Adjective

blank m (plural blanke, feminine blanka)

1. Alternative form of blanc

Danish

Adjective

blank

1. shiny, reflective, glossy

   Antonym: mat

2. (of e.g. paper) empty, blank, bearing no inscription or drawings
3. (colloquial) broke (without money)

   Synonym: flad

4. (colloquial) ignorant, clueless

Inflection

References

• “blank” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch blanc, from Old Dutch *blank, from Proto-Germanic *blankaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bl??k/
• Hyphenation: blank
• Rhymes: -??k

Adjective

blank (comparative blanker, superlative blankst)

1. white, pale
2. white (having a light skin tone)

Inflection

Derived terms

• blank staan
• blankvoorn

Descendants

• Afrikaans: blank

German

Etymology

From Middle High German blanc, from Old High German blanc (“shining, bright”), from Proto-Germanic *blankaz. Doublet of Plenk.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bla?k/
• Rhymes: -a?k

Adjective

blank (comparative blanker, superlative am blanksten)

1. (archaic) bright
2. spotlessly clean; shining; polished

3. bare; naked; uncovered

4. pure; sheer

5. (colloquial) broke; out of money
6. (card games) being a player’s last one of a respective grouping of cards (which means that the card is unprotected when the player must follow suit in trick-taking games)

Declension

Derived terms

• blitzblank

Further reading

• “blank” in Duden online

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Low German blank.

Adjective

blank (masculine and feminine blank, neuter blankt, definite singular and plural blanke, comparative blankere, indefinite superlative blankest, definite superlative blankeste)

1. glossy, shining, shiny
2. bright, clear, glittering, sunny
3. blank (e.g. cheque, paper, mind)

Derived terms

• speilblank

References

• “blank” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “blank_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bl??k/

Adjective

blank (masculine and feminine blank, neuter blankt, definite singular and plural blanke, comparative blankare, indefinite superlative blankast, definite superlative blankaste)

1. shiny, reflective

   Dei pussa sølvtøyet så det vart blankt.

   They shined the silver until it was shiny.

2. exactly, point zero (of time)

   Han sprang 100 meter på ti blank.

   He ran 100 meters in ten point zero seconds.

3. blank, empty

   Ho gav dottera eit blankt ark til å teikna på.

   She gave her daughter a blank piece of paper to draw on.

4. without knowledge about something

   Eg er heilt blank om dette temaet.

   I know nothing about this subject.

References

• “blank” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Plautdietsch

Etymology

From Middle Low German blank, from Old Saxon blank, from Proto-West Germanic *blank.

Adjective

blank

1. shiny, lustrous, glittering

Swedish

Etymology

From Middle Low German blank, from Old Saxon blank, from Proto-West Germanic *blank. Displaced native Swedish black, from Old Norse blakkr.

Adjective

blank (comparative blankare, superlative blankast)

1. reflective, shiny
2. smooth

Inflection