broken vessel
1
8.9
- noun
- /ˈbroʊkən ˈvɛsəl/
:
persona rota
- Many see her as a broken vessel due to her past traumas, but she is learning to heal and thrive.
Examples
-
A girl traveling alone was viewed as damaged goods, a cracked or broken vessel, abandoned and deserving of shame.
Fiction book (1997) -
He was a broken vessel after losing his job, unable to see a way forward for his future.
-
And yet here you are, still OK, a fractured, broken vessel that somehow still works.
-
After her difficult divorce, she felt like a broken vessel, struggling to find joy in life again.
Antonyms
How Damaged
Surface Forms
Morphology
broken + vessel
The phrase is compositionally formed (a vessel that is broken) so the broad idea of something tubular being damaged is derivable, but the specific medical sense ‘a ruptured/burst blood vessel’ requires knowing the sense of vessel = blood vessel and that 'broken' can mean 'ruptured' in this context. Because this domain-specific interpretation is not guaranteed for an average B1 learner who may know only the common senses of 'vessel' (container/ship), the expression is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Broken vessel compares a person to a cracked container: a vessel that is broken and can no longer hold water, so it leaks and falls apart. That's why it is used for 'a person who is emotionally damaged and cannot cope'.