# break down
## English
### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)

### Verb

break down (third-person singular simple present breaks down, present participle breaking down, simple past broke down, past participle broken down or (informal) broke down)
* (intransitive, of a machine, computer, vehicle, etc.) To stop functioning.
    I am afraid my computer will break down if I try to run it at too high a speed.
* (intransitive) To unexpectedly collapse, physically or in structure.
    Coordinate terms: break apart, break up, fall apart, fall down
* (transitive) To intentionally demolish; to pull down.
    Coordinate terms: break apart, break up, tear down
* (intransitive) To fail, especially socially or for political reasons.
    Coordinate terms: break apart, break up
    Talks broke down between Prime Minister John Doe and the opposition party.
    Relations broke down between Greece and Turkey.
* (intransitive, idiomatic) To give in or give up: relent, concede, surrender.
    Is it worth taking it to a repair shop, or should I just break down and buy a new one?
* (ergative, figuratively) To render or to become unstable due to stress, to collapse physically or mentally.
    Near-synonym: come undone
    She is back to work now, after she broke down the other day.
** 1921, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:Sophia broke down here. Even at this moment she was subconsciously comparing her rendering of the part of the forlorn bride with Miss Marie Lohr's.
** 1936 Sept. 15, F. Scott Fitzgerald, letter to Beatrice Dance:
    As to Ernest... He is quite as nervously broken down as I am but it manifests itself in different ways. His inclination is towards megalomania and mine towards melancholy.
* (ergative, figuratively) To render or to become weak and ineffective.
    Coordinate terms: wear away, wear down
    His authority and influence over his coordinates broke down gradually.
** 2012 June 2, Phil McNulty, “England 1-0 Belgium”, in BBC Sport:Hodgson's approach may not illuminate proceedings in Poland and Ukraine but early evidence suggests they will be tough to break down.
* (ergative) To (cause to) decay, to decompose.
    Leaves and grass will break down into compost faster if you keep them moist.
* To separate into a number of parts.
    Near-synonyms: break apart, break up, take apart, tear down, tear up
** 1950 June, N. H. Bousfield, “Angers, a French Provincial Railway Centre”, in Railway Magazine, page 371:The goods station is a transhipment centre (centre de transbordement) at which loads made up at other centres are broken down and redespatched to destinations in the area.
** 1973 December 29, “Lesbian Questionnaire”, in Gay Community News, volume 1, number 28, page 1:Meetings began in June and shortly after the group of twelve women decided to break-down into two sub groups in order to examine the subject more efficiently.
* (ergative, figuratively) To divide into parts to give more details, to provide a more indepth analysis of.
    Near-synonym: analyze
    If you don't understand, ask him to break down the numbers for you.
* (ergative) To digest.
    Near-synonym: catabolize
    His stomach took a while to break down his food.
    His food took a while to break down in his stomach.

#### Derived terms

* break-down
* breakdown
* broken down
* broken-down valise
* my car has broken down

#### See also

* break it down

### Noun

break down (plural break downs)
* Misspelling of breakdown.

### See also

* melt down