circuit breaker
1
4.5
- noun
- /ˈsɜrkɪt ˈbreɪkər/
- Specialized
:
patrón de disyuntor
Examples
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But if it doesn't, you've got to have some circuit breaker that says, you know, I could have been wrong.
-
-What's a circuit breaker?
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I tried looking around at the machinery in the room behind glass near the area with the microwave and fridge, but there were no flashing lights or beeping instruments in the part I could see, only a man with purple ink on his hands marking things down on a form after reading information off a panel that looked like a circuit breaker.
Fiction book (1997) -
In software design, a circuit breaker helps prevent system crashes by temporarily blocking requests to a failing service.
-
To improve reliability, developers often implement a circuit breaker pattern that stops repeated attempts to connect to a malfunctioning service.
-
When the API fails multiple times, the circuit breaker opens to allow recovery before further calls are made.
How Restrictive
- Specialized
1
7.9
- Specialized
1
4.5
Surface Forms
Morphology
The term borrows a concrete electrical device image: 'circuit' + 'breaker' literally describes a switch that interrupts current. Learners who know both words can plausibly infer a device (or mechanism) that interrupts a flow to prevent harm, but the technical software-specific behavior (detecting failures and temporarily blocking calls) is a metaphorical extension requiring domain knowledge, so the relation is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Circuit breaker in software borrows that same picture: when one part keeps failing the system opens the circuit like the breaker, so calls stop and other parts stay safe. That's why it means 'stop requests to a failing service' to prevent problems from spreading.