Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🪨 A broken piece ⏸️ A short pause ✂️ An ending
break-off

break-off

4.1
A piece that has come away from a larger object, often suddenly
  • noun
  • /ˈbreɪkˌɔf/
translation icon : fragmento
  • He noticed a small break-off from the sculpture lying on the ground.

Examples

  • The artist found a break-off piece of ceramic while digging in her garden.

  • After the storm, the tree had several break-offs that needed to be removed.

  • See this little thing there that's broken off from here?

  • I got the shade of floral majority and this actually came kind of broken, like the little top part was actually broken off from the bottom.

How Big

slab
87 3.3
break-off
4.1
chip
130 2.1
sliver
51 3.9

Surface Forms

break-off singular
break-offs plural

Morphology

break-off = break + off (transparent) = break + off

The meaning is directly built from 'break' + 'off', referring to something that has broken away from a larger whole.

Etymology

Break-off comes from the simple parts break and off, where break means 'to separate' and off means 'away'. Imagine a piece suddenly breaking away from a larger thing, like a rock or an iceberg, and you have a clear picture of a break-off as the fragment that has come away.