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Showing results for break one's word. Search instead for break-one-s-word.
Synonyms

break one's word

Idioms  

  1. Violate or fail to observe a promise or contract one has made. For example, You can trust him implicitly; I've never known him to break his word. [c. a.d. 1000]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

One of these—pride in appearing not to need to break one's word, he supposes too rare to be presumed upon.

From Moral Science; a Compendium of Ethics by Bain, Alexander

To break one's word is pleasure-fraught, To do one's duty gives a smart; While man, alas! will promise nought, That is repugnant to his heart.

From The Poems of Goethe Translated in the original metres by Bowring, Edgar Alfred

And it's downright wicked to break one's word.

From A Little Florida Lady by Paine, Dorothy C. (Dorothy Charlotte)

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.