broken

Examples

• All

• After a long night of studying, I could only manage brief and broken sleep.

• Broken sunlight passed through water oaks and hickory trees a hundred feet tall, illuminating the colors of fall.

  Fiction book (1996)

• And I pray this broken day will not last too long

  Forgetting Sarah Marshall (2008)

• The English is fairly broken, but you still get the gist, and the pictures speak for themselves anyway.

  Blog text (22)

• Broken sleep is almost as bad as no sleep, and cops are perfectly happy to harass the homeless during the day.

  Blog text (25)

• One of the greatest enemies of fulfilment, of purpose is procrastination and broken focus.

• It was entirely black inside but for the broken circle of moonlight leaking in from above.

  Fiction book (2001)

• That's when a broken, husky sound came to my ears; it was like a shout being strangled, so only bits and pieces of it came out.

  Fiction book (2001)

• His speech was broken, filled with pauses as he searched for the right words.

• The lecture was interrupted by broken light streaming through the cracks in the blinds.

Synonyms

I

interrupted

vsbroken

3.4

Happening with short pauses that stop and start again

covers both short pauses and incomplete or unfinished states

D

disrupted

vsbroken

4.6

Not working or happening in the normal way because something stops it

can mean pauses or incompleteness rather than strong disturbance

Antonyms

C

complete

497 1.0

Having all needed parts and nothing missing

C

continuous

141 3.7

Without a break or gap, for example in a curve

U

unbroken

10 3.9

Without stopping in time or space

Idioms

S

to sound like a broken record

• Informal

6 6.5

To keep saying the same complaint again and again until people get annoyed

B

broken to pieces

3.5

Made into many small pieces so it cannot be fixed

W

to walk on broken glass

• Informal

9.6

Act carefully to avoid causing trouble in a tense, painful situation

Compounds

B

broken heart

64 3.4

Deep sadness and pain you feel after losing or being rejected by someone you love

B

broken-down

24 4.4

In very poor condition and not working because of age or neglect

B

broken home

15 3.0

A family where the parents do not live together and children often have problems

B

broken record

• Offensive

14 4.9

A person who keeps saying the same thing until others get annoyed

B

broken in

8 5.2

An animal trained to let people ride or touch it

B

broken trust

1 4.1

A loss of confidence in someone because they lie or break promises

B

broken vessel

1 8.9

A person who feels deeply hurt and cannot cope

B

broken arch

• Specialized

8.1

An arch with a gap at the top often filled with decorations

B

broken bird

• UK

8.4

A person who is very hurt inside and finds it hard to trust others

B

Broken Britain

• Literature

7.5

A way to describe serious social and economic problems in the United Kingdom

B

broken vessel

• Specialized

3.8

A tube that carries blood that has burst and caused bleeding

B

broken wind

• UK

9.9

A long-lasting lung problem in a horse that makes breathing out hard

B

broken-backed

7.7

An animal or person with a badly damaged backbone that makes moving painful

B

broken-backed

• Specialized

9.6

A ship or structure so badly damaged that it sags in the middle

B

broken-field

• Jargon

7.4

Movement by a player using quick, sudden direction changes to avoid other players

How Continuous

continuous

141 3.7

broken

3 1.0

intermittent

35 6.5

sporadic

35 7.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology