to break down
37
3.5
- phrasal verb
- /breɪk daʊn/
:
eliminar
- Your State Department is warning you that diplomatic channels are breaking down.
- break down barriers
- break down resistance
- break down walls
The most modern example of the breaking down of barriers.
- The most modern example of the breaking down of barriers.
- And he broke down barriers so many years ago.
- It is fun, but it breaks down the barrier between students and faculty.
- And throughout this book she's learning how to break down some of those walls and let people in.
- And slowly I feel like it's dissolving and breaking down the walls of self hatred.
- And we get we're, we're, we're breaking down the stigmas.
- I think it's good that those sort of barriers have broken down a bit.
- And it's something that it it's breaking down the traditional division between right and left.
- They are incredible feats of engineering, design, science and and even culture breaking down boundaries between different countries.
- And so like it, says Cobb and Thorian, they tried to break down that wall, to bring the dead back into life.
Examples
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Another activity that breaks down social barriers is having the entire class sign while singing.
Academic text (1993) -
I'm working to try and break down that sense of that elitism.
-
And it's something that it it's breaking down the traditional division between right and left.
-
Law and order will break down and the world as you know it will be over.
-
Where that consensus breaks down is where those houses should be built.
-
Class barriers are breaking down.
-
It is fun, but it breaks down the barrier between students and faculty.
-
We've broken down the gang barriers, the race barriers.
-
We actually see a dance form breaking down generations-old racial barriers, albeit temporarily.
Academic text (1999) -
The teacher implemented new strategies to break down barriers to learning for all students.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To change a large bill into smaller bills
386
4.7
To defeat completely, often by force, ending a group or idea
305
2.8
To make people and things less strong or effective
123
3.7
To destroy a building or other structure completely
66
2.7
Separate something into smaller pieces
64
4.2
Take something apart into separate pieces
50
3.0
To separate something into parts so it can be moved or fixed
46
3.0
To remove something that is fixed or standing, for example stage equipment
39
2.7
To rip something into small pieces
35
5.8
Fall apart into smaller pieces or stop working together
26
3.0
To separate into pieces, for example a machine or a group
15
4.2
Completely destroy an idea, argument, or reputation
10
8.8
To make something weaker or less effective
Antonyms
How Effective
Surface Forms
Morphology
There is a clear connection between 'break' (to stop or interrupt) and 'down' (suggesting reduction or completion), so a learner might partially infer a sense of something being made ineffective or collapsing. However, the specific sense 'to fail' (as in negotiations breaking down) is a phrasal-verb meaning that is not fully predictable from the constituents and therefore only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Break down comes from the picture of people breaking a wall down to open a way through. That's why it means 'to remove obstacles' or 'to make something ineffective'.