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The breaking in pieces, or shattering, of a ship or other vessel by being cast ashore or driven against rocks, shoals, etc., by the violence of the winds and waves.

ically, one of the scales or pieces of the woody part of flax removed by the operation of breaking.

To break into many small pieces, or splinters; to shatter; to dash to pieces by a blow; as, to shiver a glass goblet. All the ground With shivered armor strown. Milton.

Breaking or crumbling readily in the mouth; crisp; as, short pastry.

An unsweetened breakfast cake shortened with butter or lard, rolled thin, and baked.

To utter an acute, piercing sound; to sound with a sharp, shrill tone; to become shrill. Break we our pipes, that shrilledloud as lark. Spenser. No sounds were heard but of the shrilling cock. Goldsmith. His voice shrilled with passion. L. Wallace.

To break in pieces by violence; to dash to pieces; to crush. Here everything is broken and smashed to pieces. Burke.

One who, or that which, smashes or breaks things to pieces.

uppressed activity; quiet but not dead. Some evil chance Will make the smoldering scandal break and blaze. Tennyson.

To break at once; to break short, as substances that are brittle. Breaks the doors open, snaps the locks. Prior.

f, or to cut off at once with shears or scissors; to clip off suddenly; to nip; hence, to break off; to snatch away. Curbed and snipped in my younger years by fear of my parents from those vicious excrescences to which that age was subject. Fuller. The captain seldom ordered anything out of the ship's stores . . . but…

To clip or break off the end of; to check or stunt the growth of; to nop.

The act of sobbing; a convulsive sigh, or inspiration of the breath, as in sorrow. Break, heart, or choke with sobs my hated breath. Dryden.

. Druden. No sober man would put himself into danger for the applause of escaping without breaking his neck. Dryden.

t, sommerset, summerset, etc.] "The vaulter's sombersalts." Donne. Now I'll only Make him break his neck in doing a sommerset. Beau. & Fl.

To break into small pieces, as ore, for the purpose of separating from rock. Pryce.

Liable to break or split; brittle; as, spalt timber. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.

To split; to break; to spalt. [Obs.] Mortimer.

To break ground; to continue working.

The male germinal or seminal cell, from the breaking up of which the spermoblasts are formed and ultimately the spermatozoids; a spermatospore. Balfour.