View synonyms for breakdown

breakdown

[ breyk-doun ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a breaking down, wearing out, or sudden loss of ability to function efficiently, as of a machine.
a loss of mental or physical health; collapse. Compare nervous breakdown.
an analysis or classification of something; division into parts, categories, processes, etc.
Chemistry.
1. decomposition.
2. analysis ( def 6 ).
Electricity. an electric discharge passing through faulty insulation or other material used to separate circuits or passing between electrodes in a vacuum or gas-filled tube.
a noisy, lively folk dance.

First recorded in 1825–35; noun use of verb phrase break down

The breakdown of the 114th Congress is 80 percent white, 80 percent male, and 92 percent Christian.

Truth be told, there is no one better at capturing the agony and alarm of a woman in the throes of a nervous breakdown than Moore.

No other neighborhood in Rome has the same demographic breakdown.

She remembers, of course, being tantalized by the tantalizing opening breakdown scene.

So definitely in that breakdown I used every bit of my personal life.

Assuredly, this was an occasion when the sacrifice of a few minutes might avoid the grave risk of a breakdown after daybreak.

A coward by nature, he had been on the verge of a nervous breakdown before the trial, thinking of what might happen.

He had been ailing for several weeks; as his son had remarked, his handwriting had been the first symptom of the breakdown.

It was a complete breakdown, pitiful from its contrast with the man's herculean physique and fine, if contracted, features.

This alternative arrangement was a stand-by in case of breakdown of the steam pipes to these engines.

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