broken
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbɹəʊ.kn̩/
enpr: brōk'ən
ipa: /ˈbɹoʊ.kɪn/
ipa: /ˈbɹoʊ.kən/
rhymes: -əʊkən
Forms: form: more broken
form: most broken
Etymology: From Middle English broken, from Old English brocen, ġebrocen, from Proto-Germanic *brukanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”). Cognate with Dutch gebroken (“broken”), German Low German broken (“broken”), German gebrochen (“broken”). Morphologically broke + -n.
Senses: examples: text: One recent morning the team had to replace a broken weather research station.
text: Local people say there were Russian and Chechen forces here.[…]Over here on the wall, one interesting detail- a single word, which someone has written in broken English: "Sori".
ref: 2022 September 15, 2:33 from the start, in President Zelensky visits frontline as Ukraine reclaims more territory - BBC News, BBC News, archived from the original on 15 Sep 2022:
glosses: Fragmented; in separate pieces.
examples: text: My arm is broken!
text: The ground was littered with broken bones.
glosses: Fragmented; in separate pieces.
Fractured; having the bone in pieces.
raw_tags: of a bone or body part
examples: text: A dog bit my leg and now the skin is broken.
glosses: Fragmented; in separate pieces.
Split or ruptured.
raw_tags: of skin
glosses: Fragmented; in separate pieces.
Dashed; made up of short lines with small gaps between each one and the next.
raw_tags: of a line
examples: text: Then the circle would lie down again, and here and there a wolf would resume its broken nap.
ref: 1906 May–October, Jack London, White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC:
glosses: Fragmented; in separate pieces.
Interrupted; not continuous.
raw_tags: of sleep
examples: text: Tomorrow: broken skies.
topics: climatology
meteorology
natural-sciences
glosses: Fragmented; in separate pieces.
Five-eighths to seven-eighths obscured by clouds; incompletely covered by clouds.
raw_tags: of the sky
examples: text: A cuckoo sat on a gate-post singing his broken June tune[.]
ref: 1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, London: Penguin Books, published 1994, page 9:
glosses: Fragmented; in separate pieces.
Having periods of silence scattered throughout; not regularly continuous.
raw_tags: of a melody
examples: text: broken promises of neutrality
text: broken vows
text: the broken covenant
qualifier: etc
glosses: Breached; violated; not kept.
raw_tags: of a promise
examples: text: I think my doorbell is broken.
glosses: Non-functional; not functioning properly.
glosses: Non-functional; not functioning properly.
Disconnected, no longer open or carrying traffic.
raw_tags: of an electronic connection
examples: text: This is the most broken application I've seen in a long time.
glosses: Non-functional; not functioning properly.
Badly designed or implemented.
examples: text: His conversation was in French with Mailey and Roxton, who both spoke the language well, but he had to fall back upon broken English with Malone, who could only utter still more broken French in reply.
ref: 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:
text: Don't say it in Russian / Don't say it in German / Say it in broken English
ref: 1979, “Broken English”, performed by Marianne Faithfull:
glosses: Non-functional; not functioning properly.
Grammatically non-standard, especially as a result of being produced by a non-native speaker.
raw_tags: of language
examples: text: Oh man! That is just broken!
glosses: Non-functional; not functioning properly.
Not having gone in the way intended; saddening.
raw_tags: of a situation
examples: text: The bankruptcy and divorce, together with the death of his son, left him completely broken.
text: He said, "Son, when you grow up / Would you be the savior of the broken / The beaten, and the damned?"
ref: 2006, “Welcome to the Black Parade”, in The Black Parade, performed by My Chemical Romance:
text: And oh, maybe I see a part of me in them / The missing piece, always trying to fit in / The shattered heart, hungry for a home / No, you're not alone / I love the broken ones / I love the broken ones
ref: 2011, Dia Frampton, “The Broken Ones”, in Red, performed by Dia Frampton:
glosses: Completely defeated and dispirited; shattered; destroyed.
raw_tags: of a person
glosses: Having no money; bankrupt, broke.
examples: text: All that day they rode into broken land. The prairie with its grass and rolling hills was behind them, and they entered a sparse, dry, rocky country, full of draws and short cañons and ominous buttresses.
ref: 2005, Will Cook, Until Darkness Disappears, page 54:
glosses: Uneven.
raw_tags: of land
examples: text: This item is incredibly broken. I win almost every run I get to use it.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
video-games
glosses: Overpowered; overly powerful; giving a player too much power.
raw_tags: of a tactic or option
Synonyms: sense: fragmented—bone, objects et al
word: burst
word: split
sense: fragmented—line, sleep et al
word: intermittent
word: spasmodic
word: discontinuous
sense: not kept
word: violated
sense: non-functional
word: borked
word: malfunctioning
word: out of order
sense: completely defeated
word: rekt
sense: having no money
word: destitute
word: skint
word: impoverished
sense: overpowered
word: OP
sense: overpowered
word: unbalanced
word: fractured
word: banjaxed
word: broken
word: busted
word: ruptured
Hypernyms: word: deteriorated
word: fragmentary
Hyponyms: word: heartbroken
word: housebroken
word: jailbroken
word: burst
word: cracked
word: crazed
word: destroyed
word: divided
word: riven
word: shattered
word: split
word: smashed
word: wrecked
Derived terms: a broken clock is right twice a day
breach
break
broke
broken arrow
broken-backed
broken bar
broken bird
Broken Bow
broken breast
broken Britain
broken by design
broken chord
broken clock is right twice a day
broken clouds
broken consort
broken diagonal
broken down
broken English
broken field
brokenhanded
broken-handed
broken heart
brokenhearted
broken-hearted
broken heart syndrome
broken-heart syndrome
Broken Hill
broken home
broken in
broken language
brokenly
broken man
broken-mouthed
brokenness
broken number
broken pipe
broken plural
broken power law
broken record
broken reed
broken rhyme
broken skin
broken sleep
broken source
broken tail
broken telephone
broken time
broken vertical bar
broken vessel
broken wind
broken-winded
broken window
broken windows
broken windows policing
broken windows theory
broken window theory
broket
half-broken
house-broken
if it ain't broken, don't fix it
Landolt broken ring
Night of Broken Glass
nonbroken
shipbroken
the pitcher goes so often to the well that it is broken at last
trans broken arm syndrome
unbroken
walk on broken glass
Related terms: word: damaged
word: leaking
word: out of order
word: piece
word: drunk