broken

broken, ppl. a.
  (ˈbrəʊk(ə)n)
  For forms see break v.
  I. Used adjectively in many of the senses of the verb; esp. the following:
  1. a. Separated forcibly into parts; in fragments; in pieces. (The resulting damaged state is often the main notion.)

[737 Chart. æðelhard in Cod. Dipl. V. 45 To brocenan beorᵹe.] 1383 Wyclif Isa. xxxvi. 6 Lo! thou tristist on this brokun staf. c 1500 Lancelot 240 The tronsions of o brokine sper. 1535 Coverdale Ps. xxx[i]. 12, I am become like a broken vessell. 1634 Bp. Hall Occas. Med. cx. Wks. (1808) 203 A thin, uncovered roof..dark and broken windows. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. iv. 60 Three broken oars. 1832 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. 205 Polypifers occur..rolled and broken, as on an ancient coast. 1868 J. H. Blunt Ref. Ch. Eng. I. 327 A few broken walls and the roofless, unglazed churches.

  b. broken bread, broken meat, broken victuals, etc.: fragments of food left after a meal, etc.; by extension applied to remnants of drink, as broken ale, broken beer.

1382 Wyclif Mark viii. 20 How many leepis of brokene mete ȝe token vp? 1530 Palsgr. 201/2 Broken meat, fragments. 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Escurriduras, the dropping of a cup, broken drinke, reliquiæ. 1594 Plat Diuerse new Exper. 13 Others doe soke chippings and other crustes of bread in broken beere. 1639 T. De Grey Compl. Horseman 112 Wash the places with broken beere. 1675 Hobbes Odyss. 203 With broken meat and wine himself to feed. 1876 M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. II. 15 No sign of unwashed tea-things or broken victuals.

  c. In some cases broken gives a specific sense to the combination, as broken-coal, a special size of coal; broken granite, granite reduced to a size fit for road-making; broken letter Typogr., distributed type; broken tea, tea-siftings.

1683 Moxon Mech. Exerc., Printing 371 By broken Letter is..meant..the breaking the orderly Succession the Letters stood in..and mingling the Letters together.

  † d. fig. Dissolved. Obs.

1538 Latimer Serm. & Rem. (1845) 397 Graciously to remember them with some piece of some broken abbey.

  e. In paper-making, seriously damaged, denoting a quality of defective paper inferior to retree.

1807 [see retree]. 1880 J. Dunbar Pract. Paper-maker 48 This method..saves broken [paper], and can be worked so near the edge that the impression is taken off at the cutter. 1907 Cross & Bevan Paper-making (ed. 3) v. 150 The fibres of the broken paper are..separated.

  f. Phonology. Subjected to breaking (see breaking vbl. n. 1 e).

1845 J. M. Kemble in Proc. Philol. Soc. II. 135 A tendency in the vowel to become dulled or broken when placed in particular positions. 1887 Skeat Princ. Etym. 45 The symbol ea denotes that the vowel was, to speak technically, ‘broken’, i.e. was resolved into the diphthong e-a.

  g. broken (over): in bookbinding, applied to the creasing down of a small part of an inserted print near the binding margin, for the purpose of giving support to the binding thread.

1879 J. W. Zaehnsdorf Art Book-binding 169 Broken over. When plates are turned over or folded a short distance from the back edge, before they are placed in the volume, so as to facilitate their being turned easily or laid flat, they are said to be broken over. When a leaf has been turned down the paper is broken.

  2. Rent, ruptured, torn, burst.

1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 108 Þat bar[en] awey my bolle and my broke [v.r. broken] schete. Ibid. ix. 91 He..biddeth þe begger go for his broke clothes. 1535 Coverdale Jer. ii. 13 Vile and broken pittes, that holde no water. 1577 Holinshed Chron. III. 845/1 Old hosen, broken shooes. 1641 Termes de la Ley 43 b, Old and broken apparell. 1760 Goldsm. Cit. W. xxix, His..dirty shirt, and broken silk stockings.

  3. Of organic structures: a. Having the bone fractured; b. having the surface ruptured.

c 1340 Cursor M. 8087 (Fairf.) Wiþ crumpeled knees and brokin bak [v.r. boce on bak]. 1562 J. Heywood Prov. & Ep. (1867) 113 Broken head. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. i. i. 134 Hee that escapes me without some broken limbe. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 433 ¶6 They often came from the Council Table with broken Shins. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Broken, Among horse-jockies, broken knees are a mark of a stumbler.

  4. Shattered; said of water whose coherence as a mass has been destroyed by striking against an object, or whose surface is broken.

1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §271 Sufficiently strong to resist the falling broken water. 1804 A. Duncan Mariner's Chron. II. 77 A dreadful, hollow, broken sea. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Broken Water, the contention of currents in a narrow channel. Also, the waves breaking on and near shallows. 1875 Bedford Sailor's Pocket-Bk. vi. (ed. 2) 216 In a boat outside the broken water.

  5. Crushed or exhausted by labour, etc.; with strength or power gone; enfeebled.

1490 Caxton Eneydos xxxi. 117 The ladyes were sore wery and broken of theyre longe vyage. 1577 Holinshed Chron. I. 165/1 The old broken yeeres of mans life. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 118 Such a number of broken persons..by reason of their strong labour and weake foode. 1758 Lady M. W. Montague Lett. cvi. IV. 98 Sir Charles Williams, who I hear is much broken both in his spirits and constitution. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 705 Enoch was so brown, so bow'd, So broken.

  6. Crushed in feelings by misfortune, remorse, etc.; subdued, humbled, contrite.

1535 Coverdale Ps. l[i]. 17 A broken and a contrite hert (o God) shalt thou not despise. 1642 Rogers Naaman 61 Try whether..your selves grow daily lowlier, meeker, brokenner. 1652 Needham tr. Selden's Mare Cl. 68 The King's courage was so broken. a 1718 Penn Life Wks. I. 100 She was exceedingly broken, and took an Affectionate and Reverent Leave of us. 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. vii. 194 How beautiful to die of broken-heart, on Paper. 1858 Robertson Lect. 269 Happy is the man not thoroughly broken by disappointment.

  7. Reduced or shattered in worldly estate, financially ruined; having failed in business, bankrupt.

1593 Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 257 The Kings growne bankrupt like a broken man. 1602 T. Fitzherbert Apol. 19 Cradock had byn a broken Merchant about Italie. 1714 T. Ellwood Autobiog. (1765) 257 He might thereby repair his broken fortunes. 1753 Richardson Grandison (1781) VI. i. 7 There may be many ways..of providing for a broken tradesman. 1863 Geo. Eliot Romola i. xvi. (1880) I. 225 To mend the broken fortunes of his ancient family.

  8. Reduced to obedience or discipline, tamed, trained. Often with in.

1805 Southey Madoc in Azt. iii, The Elk and Bison, broken to the yoke. 1844 Regul. & Ord. Army 380 A Horse..notified..to be properly broken. 1861 Palgrave Gold. Treasury 308 A language hardly yet broken in to verse.

  9. broken man. Sc. Law and Hist. One under sentence of outlawry, or living the life of an outlaw, or depredator, chiefly in the Highlands and Border districts; broken-clan (see quot.).

1528 MS. Caligula in Tytler Hist. Scot. (1864) II. 348 note, Divers radis to be maid upon the brokin men of our realme. 1594 Sc. Acts 13 Jas. VI §227 Daylie heirschippes of the wicked thieues and limmers of the Clannes and surnames following..broken men of the surnames of Stewarts. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Hist. Jas. V Wks. (1711) 95 A thousand, all borderers and broken men. 1818 Scott Rob Roy xxvi, He..took to the brae-side, and became a broken-man. 1820 ― Abbot xxxiv, Note. A broken clan was one who had no chief able to find security for their good behaviour, a clan of outlaws. 1875 Maine Hist. Inst. vi. 174 The result was probably to fill the country with ‘broken men’.

  10. a. Violated, transgressed, not kept intact.

1605 R. Armin Foole upon F. (1880) 14 A broken Uirgine, one that had had a barne. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 713 The sign Of Cov'nants broke. 1800–24 Campbell Lines on Poland 84 This broken faith Has robb'd you more of Fame. a 1840 C. H. Bateman Hymn, ‘Glory, glory, glory’, When mercy healed the broken law. 1878 Morley Diderot I. 274 The broken oaths of old days.

  b. broken home, a home from which either the father or the mother of the children is absent, usu. through legal separation or divorce.

a 1846 B. R. Haydon Autobiogr. (1853) I. v. 80, I left the vault, and returned to our broken home. 1919 J. C. Colcord (title) Broken homes, a study of family desertion and its social treatment. 1952 M. McCarthy Groves of Academe (1953) iv. 56 The wild-haired progressive-school rejects, offspring of broken homes. 1958 Listener 25 Sept. 480/3 There can be no doubt that a broken home can badly affect a child. 1959 B. Wootton et al. Social Sci. x. 313 The broken home..normally means homes broken by death, desertion, separation or divorce, and often also by long absence on account of illness.

  11. Having the ranks broken; routed, dispersed.

1810 Scott Lady of L. i. xxxiii, Now leader of a broken host. 1850 Prescott Peru II. 330 The governor despised the broken followers of Almagro.

  12. Having continuity or uniformity interrupted. a. of a line: Abruptly altered in direction; turned off at an angle.

1721 Bailey, Broken Radiation is the breaking of the Beams of Light, as seen through a Glass. 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp., Broken Ray, in dioptrics, the same with ray of refraction. 1828 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. III. xxxii. 319 The antennæ..broken (viz. when the main body of the antenna forms an angle with the first joints).

  b. of the surface of ground, etc.: Intersected with ravines or valleys; uneven. Also, broken up, ploughed, stripped of turf.

1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. ii. 131 Betweene them both broken ground. 1782 W. Gilpin Wye (1789) 21 By broken ground we mean such as hath lost it's turf, and discovers the naked soil. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey viii. iii, An open but broken country. 1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 112 The Carthaginian cavalry and elephants extricated themselves..from the broken ground.

  c. of states or conditions: Interrupted, disturbed.

1712 Addison Spect. No. 317 ¶21 Broken Sleep. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 430 His rest that night was broken.

  d. of weather: Unsettled, uncertain.

1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §275 The weather continued broken till Saturday.

  e. Hort. Of a breeder tulip: that has developed into a striped or variegated flower. (See break v. 32 c.)

[1724 P. Miller Gardeners & Florists Dict. II. TU 32 Some Tulips that have been already broke, or have come to stripe, do one Year abound in the dark Colours, and come finely mark'd the next Year.] 1731 ― Gard. Dict. 8 D/1 If one of these Flowers [sc. tulips] is quite broken..it will never lose its Stripes. 1824 Loudon Encycl. Gard. (ed. 2) 832 Save seed from these in preference to the finest of the variegated or broken sorts [of tulips]. 1852 G. W. Johnson Cottage Gardeners' Dict. 894/2 After some years the petals of these [sc. tulips] become striped, and they are then said to be broken. 1956 Dict. Gardening (R. Hort. Soc.) (ed. 2) IV. 2162/1 Each group of broken Tulips..is subdivided according to the colouring and ground.

  f. broken time, time lost from regular employment.

1872 Porcupine 18 May 102/2, I..was in the category of ‘broken time’. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 8 Nov. 1/3 The formation of a new Union on the basis of payment for ‘broken-time’, as it is called by courtesy. 1912 R. W. Poulton in Life (1919) 214 A carefully arranged payment for ‘broken time’ for men who are paid weekly or monthly for the hours they work.

  g. broken line, in cartography, ornament, etc.: = pecked line s.v. pecked ppl. a.; also, as a road-marking.

1937 F. Debenham Exercises in Cartography i. 9 Broken or pecked lines, and dotted lines are constantly used for boundaries, paths, shorelines, &c. 1954 Antiquaries Jrnl. XXXIV. 169 The broken-line ornament of D20, D24. 1956 H. Watkinson in Hansard Commons 13 Dec. Writ. Answers 84/2 If the white line nearer to him [sc. the driver] is a broken line, he may use his judgment and cross it if he can see that the road is clear. 1959 Highway Code 6 A broken line does not mean that it is safe for you to overtake. 1976 Milton Keynes Express 9 July 20/3 The Public Right of Way.., shown by a double broken black line on the map.

  13. a. Fragmentary, disconnected, disjointed, in patches.

1820 Scott Ivanhoe i, Here the red rays of the sun shot a broken and discoloured light. 1845 Darwin Voy. Nat. xi. (1870) 249 On the two great continents in the northern hemisphere, but not in the broken land of Europe between them. 1849 Ruskin Sev. Lamps vi. §1. 162 Broken masses of pine forest.

  b. of time: Interrupted; ‘odd’.

1621 Quarles Argalus & P. (1678) Introd., The fruits of broken hours. 1667 Pepys Diary 20 May, It being a broken day, did walk abroad. 1754 Chatham Lett. Nephew iii. 16 Mr. Addison's papers, to be read very frequently at broken times. 1827 Hare Guesses Ser. i. (1873) 162 He would have made a broken week of it.

  c. of sound, voice, and the like: Uttered disjointedly, ejaculated, interrupted.

1530 Palsgr. 307/1 Brokyn as ones speche is, abrupt. 1609 Bible (Douay) Num. ix. 5 If the trumpeting sound in length and with a broken tune. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1840) I. xv. 260 He repeated it in the..same broken words. 1731 Pope Ep. Boyle 143 Light quirks of Musick, broken and uneven. 1853 Arab. Nights (Rtldg.) 514 Her voice much broken with sobs. 1886 Stevenson Dr. Jekyll ii. 25 He spoke with a husky, whispering, and somewhat broken voice.

  d. of language: Imperfectly spoken, with the syntax incomplete.

1599 Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 265 Breake thy minde to me in broken English. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2093/4 A Frenchman..speaks broken English and Dutch. 1870 L'Estrange Miss Mitford I. v. 154 Four letters of Mr. Klopstock in broken English.

  14. a. Produced by breaking, severed.

c 1200 Trin. Coll. Hom. 93 Þe brokene boȝes. 1535 Coverdale Acts xxvii. 44 On broken peces of the shippe [so 1611]. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. §9. 61 Broken fragments of rock.

  b. Not whole in amount; fractional; not ‘round’. broken number: a fraction.

1542 Recorde Gr. Artes (1575) 319 A Fraction in deede is a broken number. 1609 MS. Acc. St. John's Hosp. Canterb., Rec. of the deathe of brother Barton and syster Brooke for broken wages vs. 1797 Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 355 This new-created income of two millions will probably furnish {pstlg}665,000 (I avoid broken numbers). 1868 Milman St. Paul's vii. 153 In one month..it yielded no less than {pstlg}50 besides broken money.

  c. Incomplete; fragmentary; imperfect.

1634 Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 169 Such broken stuff, not worthy of any answer. 1656 Burton's Diary (1828) I. 81 There may be a broken title. 1669 Gale Crt. Gentiles i. Introd. 6 Broken Traditions. 1813 Byron Giaour xliii, This broken tale was all we knew.

  15. Of colours: Qualified or reduced in tone by the addition of some other colour or colours.

1882 Printing Times 15 Feb. 35/1 Another way of regarding the tertiary colours is to contemplate them as broken hues, that is, colours degraded by the addition of their complementaries. Looked at thus, olive is a broken blue.

  † 16. Of music: a. Arranged for different instruments, ‘part’ (music); concerted. (obs.) Shakespeare appar. played upon the phrase. b. Cf. sense 13 b, quot. 1731.

[Cf. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 97 margin, The plainsong of the Hymne Saluator mundi, broken in diuision, and brought in a Canon of thre parts in one, by Osbert Parsley.]

1599 Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 263 Come your Answer in broken Musick; for thy Voyce is Musick, and thy English broken. 1600 ― A.Y.L. i. ii. 150 To see this broken Musicke in his sides. 1606 ― Tr. & Cr. iii. i. 19 Pan. What Musique is this? Serv. I doe but partly know sir: it is Musicke in parts. Ibid. 52 Here is good broken Musicke. 1625 Bacon Masques & Tri., Ess. (Arb.) 539. 1626 ― Sylva §278 So likewise, in that music which we call broken-music or consort-music, some consorts of instruments are sweeter than others.

  II. With adverbs: see combs. of break v.
  17. a. broken-in, broken-off, broken-up.

1837 Marryat Olla Podr. xxxiv, Broke-in horses. 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. IV. lv. 131 This broken-off fragment. 1637 in Cambridge Reg. Bk. Lands (1896) 42, 20 ac[res] of broken upp grounde..& 25 ac[res] unbroken upp lying by it. 1684 in Essex Inst. Hist. Coll. (1862) IV. 68/2 He should have liberty to make use of part of ye improved & broken up ground upon ye sd ffarme. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. II. 247 Winter potatoes on broken up grass land.

  b. broken-down, (a) reduced to atoms, decomposed; (b) decayed, ruined; whose health, strength, character, etc. has given way; (c) having ceased to function (cf. break v. 51 d).

1817 J. Scott Paris Revis. (ed. 4) 75 His poor broken-down animal. 1827 Blackw. Mag. Oct. 452/1 A half-drunk horse-couper, swinging to and fro..on a bit of broken-down blood. 1839–47 Todd Cycl. Anat. & Phys. III. 488/1 A mass of broken-down epithelium. 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast xxi. 63 Broken-down politicians. 1914 Millicent, Duchess of Sutherland Six Weeks at War vi. 77 We saw a number of transport trains carrying broken-down auto-wagons on the trucks. 1944 Auden For Time Being (1945) 23 Where a crown Has the status of a broken-down Sofa. 1958 Times 9 Sept. 4/6 On three-lane highways..the problem of broken-down vehicles is less acute.

  III. Combinations.
  18. General comb.: chiefly parasynthetic, as broken-ended, broken-footed, broken-fortuned, broken-handed, broken-headed, broken-hipped, broken-hoofed, broken-legged, broken-minded, broken-nosed, broken-paced, broken-shanked, broken-spirited, broken-winged, etc.

1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 131 Bote heo beo blynde or broke-schonket. 1544 R. Ascham Toxoph. (Arb.) 83 He weueth vp many brokenended matters. a 1568 Coverdale Bk. Death iii. vii. Wks. II. 124 When he, within seven days, had lost both his sons, he was not broken-minded. 1611 Bible Lev. xxi. 19 A man that is broken footed, or broken handed. 1701 Lond. Gaz. No. 3693/4 A..Mare..a little broken Hoof'd before. 1741 Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 195 The broken-fortuned peer goes into the city to marry a rich tradesman's daughter. 1824 Miss Mitford Village Ser. i. (1863) 236 The widow..had a complaining broken-spirited air. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. (1872) I. 7 A broken-nosed image.

  19. Special comb.: broken-bellied, -bodied (dial.), affected with hernia, ruptured; also fig.; broken-grass (see quot.); broken-kneed (Farriery), having the knees damaged by stumbling, etc.; also fig.; † broken-lended, ruptured; broken-mouthed (see quot.). Also broken-backed, broken-hearted, broken-wind, -ed.

1634 Sir M. Sandys Prudence xii. 168 Such is our *broken-bellied Age, that this Astutia is turned into Versutia.

1881 Evans Leicestersh. Wds. (E.D.S.) *Broken-grass, grass left and mown after a field has been grazed by cattle.

1702 Lond. Gaz. No. 3814/4 Grey Gelding..*broken Knee'd. 1822 Byron Juan vi. ci, His speech grew still more broken-kneed. 1876 G. J. Whyte-Melville Katerfelto xv. 167 He rode a broken-kneed Exmoor pony.

1483 Cath. Angl. 45 *Broken lendyde, lumbifractus.

1750 Ellis Country Housew. 47 What we call *broken-mouthed sheep, that is to say, such who by age have lost most of their teeth.

  
  
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   ▸ broken record n. a scratched record that sticks at a particular point and constantly repeats the same brief passage when played; freq. in similes as the type of an annoying and constant repetition.

1940 Yuma (Arizona) Daily Sun 29 Apr. 4 The foregoing headlines are beginning to sound like a *broken record. 1988 Newsday (N.Y.) (Nexis) 12 Dec. ii. 7 A rhythmic, tonal, aggressively repetitive music that, for the novice, may summon the analogy of a stuck record to mind (this comparison will have to be replaced as the compact disc gains pre-eminence and we forget what broken records sounded like). 2004 New Republic 28 June 15/2 In the months following the war, many of us have sounded like broken records, repeatedly calling on the president to unite the international community in helping reconstruct Iraq.

  
  
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   ▸ broken window n. U.S. Criminol. (freq. in pl.) a theory suggesting that conspicuous signs of social disorder, such as graffiti and vandalism, create a climate of neglect in which serious crime can flourish; (also) an approach to crime prevention based on this theory; chiefly attrib.

1982 G. L. Kelling & J. Q. Wilson Broken Windows in Atlantic Monthly Mar. 31/1 Philip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychologist, reported in 1969 on some experiments testing the *broken-window theory. 1988 Los Angeles Times (Electronic ed.) 6 Oct. The pre-dawn sweep was part of the ‘Broken Windows Program’, a Police Department campaign to discourage crime by removing abandoned cars, graffiti and other telltale signs of urban decay. 1990G. F. Will in Washington Post (Electronic ed.) 1 Feb. a21 The community..deteriorates through the ‘broken window’ dynamic. 2000 New Republic 10 Apr. 24/1 Broken windows has helped reduce crime in cities across the nation. 2006 New Yorker 6 Feb. 41/1 The crime decrease was attributed to..the decline of the drug trade, the gentrification of Brooklyn, the successful implementation of ‘broken windows’ policing.

Oxford English Dictionary