breakdown

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See also: break-down and break down

English

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WOTD – 10 October 2024

Etymology

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A taxi in New York City, New York, U.S.A., which has experienced a breakdown (sense 1).

Deverbal from break down.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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breakdown (countable and uncountable, plural breakdowns)

  2. (countable) A failure, particularly one which is mechanical in nature.
    Whenever he was behind the wheel, he would panic at the first sign of a breakdown.
    1. (physics, uncountable) The sudden (and usually damaging) transition of an electrical insulator to a conductor when subjected to a sufficiently strong voltage, caused by the partial or complete ionization of the insulator; (countable) an instance of this; also, the minimum voltage at which this occurs.
  3. (countable) Something, such as a vehicle, that has experienced a mechanical failure.
    We saw a breakdown by the side of the road.
  4. (uncountable) Separation of a thing into components; decomposition, fragmentation; (countable) an instance of this.
    1. (uncountable) Detailed categorization, or itemization or listing, of the components of a thing; (countable) an instance of this.
      Looking at the breakdown of the budget, I see a few items we could cut.
      • 2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of Things to Come …”, in Rail, number 978, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 44:
        The railways' monopoly had meant that accountancy and record-keeping had been limited to global accounts. In other words, there were only really headline numbers, with little useful breakdown by routes or traffic type.
    2. (chemistry, uncountable) Breaking of chemical bonds within a compound to produce simpler compounds or elements; (countable) an instance of this.
    3. (film, television, countable) A detailed description of a forthcoming project or screenplay which identifies all the required elements, such as the cast, costumes, equipment, props, and special effects.
  5. (figurative)
    1. (countable) A failure in a relationship; a failure or loss of organization in a system.
    2. (uncountable) (Sudden) worsening of physical health or (more commonly) mental stability, resulting in an inability to carry on normal activities; (countable) an instance of this.
      After so much stress, he suffered a breakdown and simply gave up.
    3. (veterinary medicine, uncountable) Injury to a horse's leg causing lameness; (countable) an instance of this.
    4. (originally and chiefly New Zealand, countable, chiefly attributive) An act of splitting logs of wood using a large saw in a sawmill; also, the saw used; or (rare) the building in which the process is carried out.
  6. (music, countable)
    2. A part of a piece of music or a song which differs from the other parts in that it features improvisation or is stripped down (for example, played by fewer instruments or a solo performer).
    4. Synonym of percussion break (“a percussion-focused segment of a song, chosen by a hip-hop DJ to manipulate through cutting, mixing, and other techniques in order to create rhythmic music”)
  7. (chiefly Southern US, countable)
    1. (dance, dated) A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of individuals or pairs in succession, common among African-Americans from the Southern United States; also, a lively event, chiefly in a rural setting, at which such dancing is done; a hoedown, a shindig.
      • 1859, John Russell Bartlett, “Break down”, in Dictionary of Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and Phrases usually Regarded as Peculiar to the United States, 2nd edition, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, and Company; London: Trübner and Company, →OCLC, page 49:
        Come, hold on, boys, do n't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a break down to wind up with.
        Said to be quoted from New England Tales; however, this work cannot currently be identified.
      • 1906, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “The Californian’s Tale”, in The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories, New York, N.Y., London: Harper & Brothers, →OCLC, page 193:
        Towards nine the three miners said that as they had brought their instruments they might as well tune up, for the boys and girls would soon be arriving now, and hungry for a good old fashioned break[-]down. A fiddle, a banjo, and a clarinet—these were the instruments. The trio took their places side by side, and began to play some rattling dance-music, and beat time with their big boots.
    2. (music) A piece of music played for such a dance, especially a rapid bluegrass tune featuring a five-string banjo.
      • 1898, Charles Garvice, chapter I, in Nell, of Shorne Mills; or, One Heart’s Burden, [S.l.]: Good Press, published 2019:
        Without a change of countenance, as if he were deaf to her entreaties and threats, he tuned up the banjo, and played a breakdown.
      • 1989, Madison Smartt Bell, chapter 21, in Soldier’s Joy, New York, N.Y.: Ticknor & Fields, →ISBN, part II (Follow Me Down (1970–71)), page 186:
        The banjo built up to breakdown speed and then took a sidestep into another register, an oddly complex net of notes which stretched out for a time and finally stopped on a full rest.
      • 2004, Joe R[ichard] Lansdale, chapter 8, in Sunset and Sawdust (A Borzoi Book), New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →ISBN, page 65:
        Her mother had not only gotten knocked up and lost her man when Sunset was thirteen, she soon took up with a traveling shoe salesman who played the banjo, wandered away with him and his shoes, probably to the sound of a banjo breakdown, leaving a note that read: "Sorry, Sunset, I got to go. Mama loves you. I left you a good pair of shoes in there on the kitchen table. They shine up easy."
      • 2011, Jenny Wingfield, chapter 12, in The Homecoming of Samuel Lake […], trade paperback edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 2012, →ISBN, page 98:
        The grown-ups were lolling around on the porch and in the yard, finger snapping and foot tapping while Samuel played "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" on his five-string banjo.
  8. (obsolete, countable) An act of a structure or other thing breaking and collapsing.

Alternative forms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ “breakdown, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2024; “breakdown, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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