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The noise of many things falling and breaking at once. There shall be . . . a great crashing from the hills. Zeph. i. 10.

To break into pieces; to crush; to grind to powder. See Crase. God, looking forth, will trouble all his host, And craze their chariot wheels. Milton.

Brittle; friable; in a condition to break with a short, sharp fracture; as, crisp snow. The cakes at tea ate short and crisp. Goldsmith.

To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers; as, to crumb bread. [Written also crum.]

To break into small pieces; to cause to fall in pieces. He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, And crumble all thy sinews. Milton.

To break, as by throwing or by collision; to shatter; to crust; to frustrate; to ruin. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Ps. ii. 9. A brave vessel, . . . Dashed all to pieces. Shak. To perplex and dash Maturest counsels. Milton.

To begin to grow light in the morning; to grow light; to break, or begin to appear; as, the day dawns; the morning dawns. In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene . . . to see the sepulcher. Matt. xxviii. 1.

A breaking or bursting forth; a violent rush or flood of waters which breaks down opposing barriers, and hurls forward and disperses blocks of stone and other débris.

To break up a camp; to move away from a camping ground, usually by night or secretly. Macaulay.

A machine for breaking open the kernels of wheat or other grain and removing the germs.

A breakfast; sometimes, also, a lunch or collation.

n, and severe pains in the head and limbs, resembling those of rheumatism; -- called also breakbone fever. It occurs in India, Egypt, the West Indies, etc., is of short duration, and rarely fatal.

The opposition of nutrition; the failure of nutrition causing the breaking down of tissue.

To unbuild; to pull or tear down; to separate virulently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure and organic existence of; to demolish. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. Ex. xxxiv. 13.

To break or separate into parts; to deflect, or decompose by deflection, a

To turn up, or delve in, (earth) with a spade or a hoe; to open, loosen, or break up (the soil) with a spade, or other sharp instrument; to pierce, open, or loosen, as if with a spade. Be first to dig the ground. Dryden.

A slight indentation on any surface. The garden pool's dark surface . . . Breaks into dimples small and bright. Wordsworth.

To eat the principal regular meal of the day; to take dinner. Now can I break my fast, dine, sup, and sleep. Shak. To dine with Duke Humphrey, to go without dinner; -- a phrase common in Elizabethan literature, said to be from the practice of the poor gentry, who beguiled the dinner hour by a promenade near the tomb of…

To throw into disorder; to break the array of. Who with fiery steeds Oft disarrayed the foes in battle ranged. Fenton.

gy, -- a normal nutritional process the reverse of assimilation; downward metabolism. The breaking down of already existing chemical compounds into simpler ones, sometimes called disassimilation. Martin.