different between spot vs break

English

Etymology

From Middle English spot, spotte, partially from Middle Dutch spotte (“spot, speck”), and partially merging with Middle English splot, from Old English splott (“spot, plot of land”). Cognate with North Frisian spot (“speck, piece of ground”), Low German spot (“speck”), Old Norse spotti (“small piece”). See also splot, splotch.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /sp?t/
• Rhymes: -?t
• (US) IPA^(key): /sp?t/

Noun

spot (plural spots)

1. A round or irregular patch on the surface of a thing having a different color, texture etc. and generally round in shape.

   The leopard is noted for the spots of color in its fur.

   Why do ladybugs have spots?

2. A stain or disfiguring mark.

   I have tried everything, and I can’t get this spot out.

3. A pimple, papule or pustule.

   That morning, I saw that a spot had come up on my chin.

   I think she's got chicken pox; she's covered in spots.

4. A small, unspecified amount or quantity.

   Would you like to come round on Sunday for a spot of lunch?

5. (slang, US) A bill of five-dollar or ten-dollar denomination in dollars.

   Here's the twenty bucks I owe you, a ten spot and two five spots.

6. A location or area.

   I like to eat lunch in a pleasant spot outside.

   For our anniversary we went back to the same spot where we first met.

   • 1800, William Wordsworth, Hart-leap Well

     "A jolly place," said he, "in times of old! / But something ails it now: the spot is curs'd."

   • 2011, Tom Fordyce, Rugby World Cup 2011: England 12-19 France [1]

     Yachvilli made it 6-0 with a second sweet strike from 45 metres after Matt Stevens was penalised for collapsing a scrum, and then slid another penalty just wide from the same spot.

7. A parking space.
8. (sports) An official determination of placement.

   The fans were very unhappy with the referee's spot of the ball.

9. A bright lamp; a spotlight.
10. (US, advertising) A brief advertisement or program segment on television.

    Did you see the spot on the news about the shoelace factory?

11. Difficult situation; predicament.

    She was in a real spot when she ran into her separated husband while on a date.

12. (gymnastics, dance, weightlifting) One who spots (supports or assists a maneuver, or is prepared to assist if safety dictates); a spotter.
13. (soccer) Penalty spot.
14. The act of spotting or noticing something.

    - You've misspelled "terrapin" here.

    - Whoops. Good spot.

15. A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above the beak.
16. A food fish (Leiostomus xanthurus) of the Atlantic coast of the United States, with a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides.
17. The southern redfish, or red horse (Sciaenops ocellatus), which has a spot on each side at the base of the tail.
18. (in the plural, brokers' slang, dated) Commodities, such as merchandise and cotton, sold for immediate delivery.
19. An autosoliton.
20. (finance) A decimal point; point.

    Twelve spot two five pounds sterling. (ie. £12.25)

21. Any of various points marked on the table, from which balls are played, in snooker, pool, billiards, etc.
22. Any of the balls marked with spots in the game of pool, which one player aims to pot, the other player taking the stripes.

Hyponyms

• sitspot
• shot spot
• sweet spot

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? Catalan: espot

Translations

Verb

spot (third-person singular simple present spots, present participle spotting, simple past and past participle spotted)

1. (transitive) To see, find; to pick out, notice, locate, distinguish or identify.
2. (finance) To loan a small amount of money to someone.

   I’ll spot you ten dollars for lunch.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To stain; to leave a spot (on).

   Hard water will spot if it is left on a surface.

   a garment spotted with mould

4. To remove, or attempt to remove, a stain.

   I spotted the carpet where the child dropped spaghetti.

5. To retouch a photograph on film to remove minor flaws.
6. (gymnastics, dance, weightlifting, climbing) To support or assist a maneuver, or to be prepared to assist if safety dictates.

   I can’t do a back handspring unless somebody spots me.

7. (dance) To keep the head and eyes pointing in a single direction while turning.

   Most figure skaters do not spot their turns like dancers do.

8. To stain; to blemish; to taint; to disgrace; to tarnish, as reputation.

   • Link not me in self same chain With the wicked-working folk, Who their spotted thoughts do cloak.

   • If ever I shall close these eyes but once, / May I live spotted for my perjury.

9. To cut or chip (timber) in preparation for hewing.
10. To place an object at a location indicated by a spot. Notably in billiards or snooker.

    The referee had to spot the pink on the blue spot.

Translations

Adjective

spot (not comparable)

1. (commerce, finance) Available on the spot; for immediate payment or delivery.

   spot wheat; spot cash; a spot contract

Translations

Anagrams

• OTPs, POST, POTS, PTOs, Post, TPOs, opts, post, post-, post., pots, stop, tops

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?sb??d?]

Etymology 1

From the verb spotte (“to mock”). Compare Old Norse spottr, German Spott.

Noun

spot c (singular definite spotten, not used in plural form)

1. mockery, ridicule
   • 2013, Jan Guillou, Vejen til Jerusalem, Modtryk ?ISBN

     Men at også den anden søn savnede alle mandlige dyder, var straks værre og gjorde spotten større.

     But that the other son, too, lacked all male virtues, was much worse and enlarged the mockery.

   • 2010, Tove Ditlevsen, Man gjorde et barn fortræd, Gyldendal A/S ?ISBN

     Hun havde råd til at smile igen, så ligegyldig var deres spot hende.

     She could afford to smile back, that was how little she cared about their ridicule.

   • 2015, Jørgen Christensen, Muhammed-tegningerne, demokratiet og sikkerhedspolitikken, BoD – Books on Demand ?ISBN, page 9

     I artiklen skrev kulturredaktør Flemming Rose bl.a., at muslimer måtte acceptere, at deres religiøse følelser blev udsat for hån, spot og latterliggørelse^[sic]:...

     In the article, editor of culture Flemming Rose wrote, among other things, that muslims had to accept their religious feelings being made the object of mockery, derision and ridicule:...

   • 2014, Fjodor M. Dostojevskij, Minder fra dødens hus, Bechs Forlag - Viatone ?ISBN

     Først sporede man hos alle en heftig forbitrelse, derefter en dyb nedslåethed, og endelig syntes al sindsbevægelse at vige pladsen for hoverende spot.

     At first, one saw with everyone a hefty bitterness, then a deep sadness, and finally, all emotion seemed to recede, making way for gloating mockery.

Inflection

Etymology 2

From English spot.

Noun

spot c or n (singular definite spotten or spottet, plural indefinite spot or spots)

1. spotlight
   • 1982, Lene H. Bagger, Idioterne, p. 179

     I millisekundet hvor lyset satte spots på hendes uforberedte ansigt, røbede det hende

     In the short moment when the light turned the spotlight on her unprepared face, it revealed her

2. spot (short advertisement in radio or TV)
   • 2012, Jyllands-Posten

     Lego meddeler, at deres juleomsætning overgik alle forventninger på grund af spottene i TV 2

     LEGO informs that their Christmas sale surpassed all expectations due to the spots on TV 2

Inflection

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

spot

1. imperative of spotte

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?t/
• Rhymes: -?t

Etymology 1

From Middle Dutch spot, from Old Dutch *spot, from Proto-Germanic *spuþþaz.

Noun

spot m (uncountable)

1. mockery

   Synonyms: spotternij, plagerij, pesterij

Etymology 2

Borrowed from English spot.

Noun

spot m (plural spots, diminutive spotje n)

1. spot; a spotlight.
2. spot; a brief segment on television.

Anagrams

• post, stop

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English spot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?t/

Noun

spot m (plural spots)

1. (physics) light spot
2. blip (on radar)
3. (cinematography, theater) spotlight, spot
4. (surfing) area
5. (television) spot; a brief segment on television.

Further reading

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

Anagrams

• pots, stop

Indonesian

Etymology

From English spot.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?sp?t]
• Hyphenation: spot

Noun

spot

1. (colloquial) spot, a location or area.

Further reading

• “spot” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Daring, Jakarta: Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa, Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia, 2016.

Italian

Etymology

From English spot.

Noun

spot m (invariable)

1. spot (theatrical light; luminous point; brief radio or TV advertisment)

Anagrams

• post, stop

Further reading

• spot in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Middle Dutch

Etymology

From Old Dutch *spot, from Proto-Germanic *sputtaz.

Noun

spot m or n

1. joke, jest
2. mockery, derision

Inflection

This noun needs an inflection-table template.

Derived terms

• spotten

Descendants

• Dutch: spot

Further reading

• “spot”, in Vroegmiddelnederlands Woordenboek, 2000
• Verwijs, E.; Verdam, J. (1885–1929) , “spot”, in Middelnederlandsch Woordenboek, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, ?ISBN

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English spot (“brief advertisement”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?t/

Noun

spot m inan

1. (neologism) spot, a short broadcast in television

Usage notes

Used for all short informational and promotional broadcasts, such as public service announcements, social campaigns, election ads and advertisements. The native counterpart reklama is restricted to advertisements.

Declension

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

spot m (genitive singular spoit, plural spotan)

1. spot, stain
2. spot, place

Synonyms

• (place): bad

Derived terms

• spot dall

Spanish

Noun

spot m (plural spots)

1. advert, ad

Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English sport.

Noun

spot

1. sport

Volapük

Noun

spot (nominative plural spots)

1. sport

Declension

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