Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - break through

1. If you break through a barrier, you succeed in forcing your way through it. Protesters tried to break through a police cordon... About fifteen inmates broke through onto the roof. PHRASAL VERB: V P n, V P 2. If you break through, you achieve success even though there are difficulties and obstacles. There is still scope for new writers to break through... I broke through the poverty barrier and it was education that did it. PHRASAL VERB: V P, V P n 3. see also breakthrough BREAK UP 1. When something breaks up or when you break it up, it separates or is divided into several smaller parts. There was a danger of the ship breaking up completely... Break up the chocolate and melt it... He broke the bread up into chunks and gave Meer a big one... Tanks are strongly built. It is a complicated and difficult process to break them up. PHRASAL VERB: V P, V P n (not pron), V n P into n, V n P 2. If you break up with your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife, your relationship with that person ends. My girlfriend had broken up with me... He felt appalled by the whole idea of marriage so we broke up. = split up PHRASAL VERB: V P with n, pl-n V P 3. If a marriage breaks up or if someone breaks it up, the marriage ends and the partners separate. MPs say they work too hard and that is why so many of their marriages break up... Fred has given me no good reason for wanting to break up our marriage. PHRASAL VERB: V P, V P n (not pron) 4. When a meeting or gathering breaks up or when someone breaks it up, it is brought to an end and the people involved in it leave. A neighbour asked for the music to be turned down and the party broke up... Police used tear gas to break up a demonstration... He charged into the crowd. ‘Break it up,’ he shouted. = disperse PHRASAL VERB: V P, V P n (not pron), V n P 5. When a school or the pupils in it break up, the school term ends and the pupils start their holidays. (BRIT) It’s the last week before they break up, and they’re doing all kinds of Christmas things. ? go back PHRASAL VERB: V P 6. If you say that someone is breaking up when you are speaking to them on a mobile telephone, you mean that you can only hear parts of what they are saying because the signal is interrupted. The line’s gone; I think you’re breaking up. PHRASAL VERB: V P 7. see also break-up