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Glite Dictionary
💔 To end a relationship 👥 To end a group 🪨 To separate parts 😢 To lose control 📡 To interrupt 😂 To laugh hard
to break up

to break up

38 5.0
Become unable to cope because of strong stress or emotion
  • phrasal verb
  • /breɪk ʌp/
  • Informal
translation icon : quebrarse
  • When they broke up, he experienced a deep sense of loss and found it difficult to get out of bed.

I I'd say she was the person who I figured would probably be the most, you know, sad and broken up about it.

Examples

  • He struggled for months after we broke up, feeling lost and unable to focus on anything.

  • After the break up, she found it hard to cope with her daily routine and felt overwhelmed by sadness.

  • It's also why we broke up.

    What Happens Later (2023)

  • l mean, you broke up with me, right?

    Fantastic Four (2005)

  • Right after we broke up.

    A Nice Girl Like You (2020)

  • I am breaking up with you.

    Z-O-M-B-I-E-S 3 (2022)

  • The next time I heard from her, months later, she had broken up with him.

    Academic text (2005)

  • You must remind yourself at these times why you broke up with this person.

    Blog text (27)

  • He broke up with me.

    Endangered (2022)

  • I just broke up with my boyfriend, so naturally he's not speaking to me.

    Fiction book (1998)

Synonyms

to collapse
vsto break up
579 3.9

To fall down suddenly, for example when a person faints or a building breaks

is an emotional loss of control that prevents daily coping not physical failure
to fall apart
vsto break up
  • Informal
193 4.2

To lose control of your feelings because of strong stress or sadness

is a loss of mental stability that prevents daily coping
to crack
vsto break up
145 6.5

To lose control of your emotions under strong pressure

is a loss of mental stability that prevents daily coping
to break down
vsto break up
111 3.9

To lose control of your feelings and cry or collapse

is a loss of mental stability that prevents daily coping
to break apart
vsto break up
26 3.0

To separate into pieces, for example a machine or a group

is an emotional loss of control that prevents daily coping not physical separation
to go to pieces
vsto break up
9 6.1

Lose control of your feelings because of shock or sadness

is a loss of mental stability that prevents daily coping
to come undone
vsto break up
  • Informal
9 5.3

To begin to fail, fall apart, or lose control

is a loss of mental stability that prevents daily coping
to crack up
vsto break up
  • Informal
4 7.4

To have a nervous breakdown because of too much stress

is a loss of mental stability that prevents daily coping

Antonyms

to cope
272 2.9

To deal with problems and difficult situations

How Stable

to cope
272 2.9
to break up
  • Informal
38 5.0
collapse
350 4.1
nervous breakdown
  • Informal
52 5.3

Surface Forms

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

Morphology

break + up

The meaning 'to interrupt or bring a pause' is directly derivable from combining 'break' (to stop or interrupt) with the particle 'up', which commonly adds a sense of separation/completion; this verb+particle composition follows a standard and predictable English pattern. Even though 'up' lacks a dictionary entry here, its usual contribution to meaning makes the expression readily inferable by a B1 learner who knows the constituents.

Etymology

Break up here uses the image of someone 'breaking' inside, like a structure that falls into pieces when it can no longer hold weight. So it means 'to have a mental or emotional breakdown' and be unable to cope.