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Glite Dictionary
to break the story

to break the story

21 3.5
Be the first to tell people about a news event
  • phrasal verb
  • /breɪk ðə ˈstɔri/
  • Literature
: dar la primicia
  • To the fury of the correspondents in Rome, the first to break the story was a Washington Post reporter in Washington.
  • reporter broke the story
  • first broke the story
  • journalist who broke the story

Well, our pal Dan Wooden is the Daily Mail columnist and GB News host who broke the story of Megxit, including that claim.

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Examples

  • Us Weekly, which broke the story, was the last handle Ross followed before shutting her account down.

    Blog text (6)

  • In this case, National Review broke the story last week and it's being covered across the world, including Russian state owned media.

  • If you break the story, everyone will know it came from her.

    The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)

  • Together, we were able to break the story in detail.

    Blog text (29)

  • "But the press broke the story, and people went nuts!"

    Academic text (2002)

  • CBS broke the story in late April 2004.

    WMD: Weapons of Mass Deception (2004)

  • Brian Ross at NBC is breaking the story.

    Charlie Wilson's War (2007)

  • The Washington Post didn't break the story until ten days later, when I was back home.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • Instead, Politico broke the story on Tuesday, based on a Monday press release from The Cloud Foundation.

    Blog text (8)

  • If you break the story, everyone will know it came from her.

Synonyms

to break
vsto break the story
  • Literature
∞ 3.6

To make news known quickly

focuses on being the first to report or publish news

How Early

scoop
  • Literature
66 4.3
to break the story
  • Literature
21 3.5
to announce
∞ 1.5
report
∞ 1.3

Surface Forms

break the story infinitive
breaking the story present participle
breaks the story third person singular
broke the story past
broken the story past participle

Morphology

break + the + story

In journalistic English 'break' has a common sense 'to reveal or publish news', and 'story' denotes a news item; combining these yields 'to be the first to report a news item'. This is a direct, compositional meaning that a B1 learner who knows both constituent senses would readily infer.

Etymology

Break the story may come from the image of a reporter breaking open a sealed envelope to let a story out. So, it now means 'to report or publish news first', like being the first newspaper or TV station to tell people about an event.