break down
v 1: make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of;
break down into components or essential features;
"analyze a specimen"; "analyze a sentence"; "analyze a
chemical compound" [syn: analyze, analyse, dissect,
take apart] [ant: synthesize]
2: make ineffective; "Martin Luther King tried to break down
racial discrimination" [syn: crush]
3: lose control of one's emotions; "When she heard that she had
not passed the exam, she lost it completely"; "When her
baby died, she snapped" [syn: lose it, snap]
4: stop operating or functioning; "The engine finally went";
"The car died on the road"; "The bus we travelled in broke
down on the way to town"; "The coffee maker broke"; "The
engine failed on the way to town"; "her eyesight went
after the accident" [syn: fail, go bad, give way, die,
give out, conk out, go, break]
5: separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts
[syn: decompose, break up]
6: fall apart; "the building crimbled after the explosion";
"Negociations broke down" [syn: crumble, crumple, tumble,
collapse]
7: cause to fall or collapse
8: collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack
[syn: collapse]
WordNet (r) 2.0
162 Moby Thesaurus words for "break down":
afflict, aggrieve, alphabetize, analyze, anatomize, anguish,
arrange, assay, assort, bawl, beat down, bend, blow, blow down,
blubber, boohoo, break, break up, bring down, bring low,
bring to tears, bring to terms, bulldoze, burn down, burn out,
burst into tears, cast down, catalog, categorize, cave in,
chop down, class, classify, codify, collapse, come to naught,
come to nothing, conk out, conquer, crack up, crumble, crush, cry,
cut down, cut up, decompose, desolate, digest, disintegrate,
dissect, dissolve in tears, divide, draw tears, droop, drop,
drop a tear, embitter, faint, fall down, fall flat, fall in,
fall through, fatigue, fell, file, fizzle out, flag, flatten,
founder, gasp, get bogged down, get hung up, get mired, get tired,
give out, go haywire, go kaput, go wrong, grade, greet, grieve,
group, grow weary, humble, humiliate, index, inundate, jade,
knock down, knock over, level, list, master, molder, mow down,
oppress, order, overmaster, overwhelm, pack up, pant, peg out,
peter out, pigeonhole, place, play out, poop out, prostrate, puff,
puff and blow, pull down, putrefy, quell, range, rank, rase, rate,
raze, reduce, reduce to elements, resolve, rot, run down, run out,
segment, separate, shed tears, sink, smash, snivel, sob, sorrow,
sort, spoil, steamroller, subdivide, subdue, succumb, suppress,
sway, tabulate, taint, take down, tear down, throw down, tire,
topple, topple down, topple over, torment, totter,
trample underfoot, tread underfoot, turn, type, tyrannize, unman,
weary, weep, wheeze, whimper, wilt
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
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