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To divide or break up into parts or divisions, as by discord; to separate into parts or parties, as a political party; to disunite. [Colloq.] South.

To practice plunder or robbery. Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil. Spenser.

Fig.: To get by imposition or mean arts without cost; as, to sponge a breakfast. Swift.

f reproduction resembling multitude fission, common among Protozoa, in which the organism breaks up into a number of pieces, or spores, each of which eventually develops into an organism like the parent form. Balfour.

Fig.: A sudden outbreak; as, a spurt of jealousy. Spurt grass (Bot.), a rush fit for basket work. Dr. Prior.

lloq.] Dickens. -- To be at square, to be in a state of quarreling. [Obs.] Nares. -- To break no square, to give no offense; to make no difference. [Obs.] -- To break squares, to depart from an accustomed order. To see how the squares go, to see how the game proceeds; -- a phrase taken from the game of chess, the che…

To break silence or secrecy for fear of pain or punishment; to speak; to confess. [Colloq.] If he be obstinate, put a civil question to him upon the rack, and he squeaks, I warrant him. Dryden.

eyes, or to be undeniably evident. "The law . . . stares them in the face whilst they are breaking it." Locke.

To break in a stave or the staves of; to break a hole in; to burst; -- often with in; as, to stave a cask; to stave in a boat.

on a gland which secrets an acrid fluid, as in nettles. The points of these hairs usually break off in the wound, and the acrid fluid is pressed into it.

on which one came, with the purpose of continuing one's journey on a subsequent train; to break one's journey. [Railroad Cant, U.S.] stopover

ty; a civil, political, or domestic commotion; sedition, insurrection, or war; violent outbreak; clamor; tumult. I will stir up in England some black storm. Shak. Her sister Began to scold and raise up such a storm. Shak.

To strike, beat, or bang; to break; to destroy. [Scot. & Prov. Eng.]

To break a strand of (a rope).

mpany, or from the proper limits; to rove at large; to roam; to go astray. Now, until the break of day, Through this house each fairy stray. Shak. A sheep doth very often stray. Shak.

or toughness; the quality of bodies by which they endure the application of force without breaking or yielding; -- in this sense opposed to frangibility; as, the strength of a bone, of a beam, of a wall, a rope, and the like. "The brittle strength of bones." Milton.

To be extended, or to bear extension, without breaking, as elastic or ductile substances. The inner membrane . . . because it would stretch and yield, remained umbroken. Boyle.

To break forth; to commence suddenly; -- with into; as, to strike into reputation; to strike into a run.

en (with or without a change of the root vowel); as in the verbs strive, strove, striven; break, broke, broken; drink, drank, drunk. Opposed to weak, or regular. See Weak.

To make mellow; to break, as land; also, to destroy, as weeds.