to break bad
1
8.9
- phrasal verb
- /breɪk bæd/
- Informal
:
caer en la delincuencia
- Despite his clean-cut appearance, he chose to break bad by committing petty theft to support his addiction.
Examples
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The biological basis of unfinished tasks: how to break bad habits; how to start your day in a productive and goal-oriented way by building a dashboard; how to stay on track with your priorities; high-tech and low-tech tools to increase your productivity; how to build a contact database and always find the right people to get your job done (and get started right during the training session).
Blog text (19) -
So what idea has possessed them that makes them break bad when that horrific thing happens to them?
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Am I just... bein' like this since I just come back... or am I gonna break bad again?
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So what idea has possessed them that makes them break bad when that horrific thing happens to them?
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After years of being a law-abiding citizen, he finally decided to break bad and join a gang.
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Once she tasted illegal drugs, she began to break bad and fell into a life of crime.
How Bad
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'break' (a change or shift) and 'bad' (morally wrong) yield a fairly interpretable composite meaning 'become bad' so a B1 learner who knows both words could infer a general sense of turning to bad behavior. However, the phrase is colloquial/slang and specifically implies turning to criminal or morally questionable activity — a nuance not fully predictable from the parts alone — so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Break bad may come from the image of break meaning 'to change suddenly' and bad meaning 'wrong' or 'criminal'. Imagine a person who lives a normal life but then 'breaks' and turns onto a dark path, so the phrase means 'to become involved in crime or bad actions'.