to broach someone's concerns
- phrasal verb
- /broʊtʃ/
- It's important to broach someone's concerns early in a project to avoid misunderstandings.
Examples
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After thinking it over, he finally broached his concerns to his supervisor.
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She was unsure how to broach her concerns with the rest of the team.
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Please broach her concerns during the meeting.
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During the meeting, she decided to broach her concerns about the project's budget with the team.
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It's important to broach any concerns you have about the new policies with your supervisor.
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Before the presentation, I will broach my concerns regarding the timeline with the project manager.
Synonyms
To bring up a subject or cause people to notice it
To mention a subject for discussion
To bring up a difficult or sensitive subject
To bring up a topic or problem for discussion
Talk about something worrying you so you feel better
Speak in public to say you are worried about something
To start talking about a topic that may be difficult or sensitive
Antonyms
How Direct
- Informal
- Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'broach' means to bring up or introduce and 'someone's concerns' refers to their worries, so a learner who knows both constituents can infer the phrase. This follows a regular verb + object pattern (introduce X), with no idiomatic shift, making it immediately understandable.
Etymology
The phrase broach someone's concerns comes from an old image: to broach meant to make a hole in a barrel to let out what was inside. So to broach someone's concerns is like opening that barrel to let out someone's concerns — their 'worries' — and begin a talk about them.