broke 1 of 2

broke

2 of 2

verb

past tense of break
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as in demoted
to bring to a lower grade or rank the captain was broken to lieutenant commander for disobeying a direct order from his group commander

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4
as in deciphered
to change (as a secret message) from code into ordinary language Alan Turing and the Bletchley Park mathematicians broke the Enigma code being used by the Nazis

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as in plowed
to cut into and turn over the sod of (a piece of land) using a bladed implement farmers once broke fields with horse-drawn plows

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as in died
to stop functioning after working for 30 years, the pump simply broke one day

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as in ruined
to cause to lose one's fortune and become unable to pay one's debts another bad investment could break him

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as in surfaced
to penetrate the surface (as of water) from below dolphins were breaking all around the boat

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of broke
Adjective
The phone calls are like guerrilla attacks: her mother is broke and wants the house in Napanee. Literary Hub, 14 Aug. 2025 Back then, when a team went broke, finding a new place for it was hard. Lori Riley, Hartford Courant, 7 Aug. 2025
Verb
Last year, ground broke at a property on B Street near Ellis Lake for which officials had spent years seeking development. Jake Goodrick, Sacbee.com, 5 Sep. 2025 Todd was attending a house party on June 17 with a friend when police broke the party up, according to his friend and his mother. Saleen Martin, USA Today, 5 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for broke
Recent Examples of Synonyms for broke
Adjective
  • Shooting scenes in wide or medium shots that sometimes break into Hsiao-Lee’s harrowing point-of-view, cinematographer Yu Jing-Pin depicts a world without much color or hope, while sets by Huang Mei-Ching and Tu Shuo-Feng emphasize a sad and impoverished existence.
    Jordan Mintzer, HollywoodReporter, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Each serves a high rate of students from impoverished households, and families within the schools' boundaries can choose to attend those schools or receive a bus to a second school option based on their address.
    Krista Johnson, Louisville Courier Journal, 4 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • And while those enforcement actions have not yet translated into criminal cases or fines against the employers, the raids themselves in some cases significantly disrupted business operations.
    Trevor Hughes, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Muscle cramps and playing surfaces As muscles fatigue, the normal balance between signals in the nervous system that direct muscles to contract and relax become disrupted.
    Michael Hales, The Conversation, 9 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Milan’s fifth triumph in 1994 put them one behind the Spanish side, but this ended when Madrid picked up their seventh crown in 1998 and remains the closest anybody has got to them.
    Will Jeanes, New York Times, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Billy Williams ended a streak of playing in 1,117 consecutive games.
    Kori Rumore, Chicago Tribune, 3 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • While the case garnered global acclaim, Captain Terauchi was demoted to a desk job for ’embarrassing’ the airline, only to be reinstated later.
    Atharva Gosavi, Interesting Engineering, 3 Sep. 2025
  • The Royals will need to decide which player will be demoted to make room.
    Jaylon Thompson, Kansas City Star, 1 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Those sent on the trip filmed and recorded their upcoming opponents' signs, which Stalions then deciphered.
    Ryan Canfield, FOXNews.com, 15 Aug. 2025
  • Metabolism has grown into one of the biggest buzzwords in the wellness industry — a tricky code that, if deciphered, is believed to unlock the secrets of weight loss and overall health.
    Lauren Kim, CNN Money, 6 Aug. 2025
Verb
  • The AfD was classified as a right-wing extremist organization by Germany's spy agency in May, but the description has been paused because of an appeal pending in court.
    Jordan King, MSNBC Newsweek, 3 Sep. 2025
  • While some borrowers may be opting to keep their payments paused, others who want to get out of the SAVE forbearance are struggling to do so, Kantrowitz said.
    Annie Nova, CNBC, 3 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • Farmers plowed up lead and iron shrapnel and even whole hand grenades by the pallet every harvest season.
    Michael Jerome Plunkett September 5, Literary Hub, 5 Sep. 2025
  • Investors have plowed close to $350 million in the space with a new crop of startups like Omi and Limitless releasing wearables, while Amazon just snapped up Bee, a tiny note-taking device startup, for an undisclosed amount.
    Rashi Shrivastava, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • However, a Minnesota court struck down the binary trigger ban, arguing that the legislature violated the state constitution’s single-subject clause by burying the ban inside a sprawling spending bill.
    Mia Cathell, The Washington Examiner, 4 Sep. 2025
  • And Congress is unlikely to grant him new tariff powers after the courts just ruled that doing so unilaterally violated the separation of powers.
    Brett Erickson, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Broke.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/broke. Accessed 10 Sep. 2025.

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