different between broken vs brokeback

English

Etymology

From Middle English broken, from Old English brocen, ?ebrocen, from Proto-Germanic *brukanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *brekan? (“to break”). Cognate with Dutch gebroken (“broken”), German Low German broken (“broken”), German gebrochen (“broken”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: br?k'?n, IPA^(key): /?b???k?n/
• Rhymes: -??k?n

Verb

broken

1. past participle of break

Adjective

broken (comparative more broken, superlative most broken)

1. Fragmented, in separate pieces.
   1. (of a bone or body part) Fractured; having the bone in pieces.

   2. (of skin) Split or ruptured.

   3. (of a line) Dashed, made up of short lines with small gaps between each one and the next.
   4. (of sleep) Interrupted; not continuous.
      • 1906, Jack London, White Fang:

        Then the circle would lie down again, and here and there a wolf would resume its broken nap.

   5. (meteorology, of the sky) Five-eighths to seven-eighths obscured by clouds; incompletely covered by clouds.

   6. (of a melody) having periods of silence scattered throughout; not regularly continuous.
2. (of a promise, etc) Breached; violated; not kept.

3. Non-functional; not functioning properly.
   1. (of an electronic connection) Disconnected, no longer open or carrying traffic.
   2. (software, informal) Badly designed or implemented.

   4. (of language) Grammatically non-standard, especially as a result of being produced by a non-native speaker.
   5. (colloquial, US, of a situation) Not having gone in the way intended; saddening.

4. (of a person) Completely defeated and dispirited; shattered; destroyed.

5. Having no money; bankrupt, broke.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

6. (of land) Uneven.
7. (sports and gaming, of a tactic or option) Overpowered; overly powerful; too powerful.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "broken" is often applied: glass, vase, cup, mirror, window, bone, wing, leg, arm, hand, foot, heart, egg, tool, sword, column, road, bridge, stick, device, machine, camera, TV, car, computer, promise, vow, law, trust, dream, relationship, friendship, love, family, marriage, bond, tie, silence, ground, land, circle, image, language, spirit, soul.

Synonyms

• (fragmented—bone, objects et al): burst, split; see also Thesaurus:broken
• (fragmented—line, sleep et al): intermittent, spasmodic; see also Thesaurus:discontinuous
• (not kept): violated
• (non-functional): borked, malfunctioning; see also Thesaurus:out of order
• (completely defeated): rekt
• (having no money): destitute, skint; see also Thesaurus:impoverished
• (uneven land):
• (overpowered): OP, unbalanced

Hyponyms

• heartbroken
• housebroken
• jailbroken

Derived terms

• brokenhearted, broken-hearted
• Broken Hill
• brokenly
• brokenness
• unbroken

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• broken at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Borken, bonker, borken

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

break +? back; first used for "hunchback" in Carson McCullers' 1943 novella The Ballad of the Sad Café.

Adjective

brokeback (not comparable)

1. (rare) Hunchbacked.

   Damn those brokeback tramps making a mess of our city.

2. (rare) Broken; derelict.

   The brokeback bridges in the hills sadden me: this place used to be beautiful.

   • 2007, Charles Stross, Halting State (?ISBN), page 134:

     There will be underground rivers, vast and wide, and huge cavernous killing zones with mist-wreathed stalagmite islands and waterfalls thundering into the subterranean depths — and stepping-stones and brokeback bridges to traverse under ...

   • 2014, James W. Hall, The Big Finish: A Thorn Novel (?ISBN):

     As he drove Webb looked out at the brokeback houses, the ancient cars rusting in dirt driveways. At the ruined furniture in the weeds and ruptured refrigerators and stoves lying on their sides in the front yards. Disgraceful how they lived ...

Translations

Etymology 2

From the title of Annie Proulx's 1997 short story "Brokeback Mountain"; popularised by the 2005 film of the same name.

Adjective

brokeback (not comparable)

1. (slang, neologism) Homoerotic; homosexual, gay.

   I don't really think Frodo and Sam were gay, even if a couple of the scenes seemed a little brokeback to me.

Alternative forms

• Brokeback

Translations