to break loose
8
3.9
- phrasal verb
- /breɪk luːs/
:
escaparse
- Tom broke loose and ran.
- hell broke loose
- barge broke loose
- broke loose and ran
Examples
-
Gonna try to break loose.
-
Another time he tried to break loose when he was walking with his captors.
-
- You should break loose.
-
I want to break loose.
-
All the wild animals in the zoo have broken loose.
-
One of the children broke loose and ran inside shouting.
Fiction book (1994) -
He will break loose his chains.
-
The goat breaks loose, gets in the cabbage patch, and eats all the cabbages.
Academic text (2005) -
The case arose when a barge broke loose from its tug, collided with another vessel, and eventually sank.
Academic text (1990) -
After hours of trying, the dog finally managed to break loose from its leash and ran through the park.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To get away from a place where you are kept or are in danger
165
3.0
To escape from people who are holding you, often by force
137
2.7
To get away from a person, place, or situation that causes trouble
93
1.1
To become difficult to control or stop, for example prices
82
5.3
To stop being part of or connected to something
51
3.6
To get free quickly from a place or situation, often from captivity
22
7.6
Free a person or thing from something that traps them
18
4.4
To have fun and act without control, or to remove someone from their job
13
3.8
Set something free from being held or controlled
11
4.1
To escape limits or control and become independent
6
4.5
To pull something off quickly with force
5
3.6
To escape suddenly from control, capture, or a group
Antonyms
How Forceful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to suddenly become free or uncontrollable' is directly derivable from combining 'break' (to break away/escape) with 'loose' (free, not restrained). This compositional pattern is straightforward and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Break loose comes from the image of something tied or chained that breaks and becomes loose, like a horse pulling free from a fence or a boat tearing away from its mooring. That's why it means 'to escape' or 'get free'.