break the news

1. Make something known, as in We suspected that she was pregnant but waited for her to break the news to her in-laws. This term, in slightly different form (break a matter or break a business), dates from the early 1500s. Another variant is the 20th-century journalistic phrase, break a story, meaning “to reveal a news item or make it available for publication.”

Related Words

• advise 
• announce 
• confess 
• declare 
• disclose 
• explain 
• express 
• inform 
• instruct 
• mention 
• notify 
• order 
• report 
• reveal 
• say 
• speak 
• state 
• summon