breakout

American  

[brayk-aut] / ˈbreɪkˌaʊt /

noun

• breakouts
  plural

1. an escape, often with the use of force, as from a prison or mental institution.

2. an appearance or manifestation, as of a disease, that is sudden and often widespread; outbreak.

3. an itemization; breakdown.

   a hotel bill with a breakout of each service offered.

4. an instance of surpassing any previous achievement.

   a breakout in gold prices.

5. the act or process of removing and disassembling equipment that has been used in drilling a well.

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adjective

1. of or constituting a sudden increase, advance, or unexpected success.

   The director has finally scored with a breakout movie.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• breakouts
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of breakout

First recorded in 1810–20; noun use of verb phrase break out

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

breakout breakouts

Driver, in his breakout role, played Dunham's on-and-off again love interest in the show.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

The Muse Wonder family comes after the breakout success of Meta’s Muse agent, which racked up over 5 million downloads in September.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026

While Silicon Valley heavyweights OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta dominate the landscape, young startups like Instinct are also becoming breakout hits.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

Kerr, a 32-year-old left-hander for the Atlanta Braves, has emerged as the breakout star of the postseason.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026

It was Elizebeth who engineered their final breakout.

From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield

She also had a close friend who traveled with her overseas for a vacation during the worst of the breakouts, and mentioned in passing that she’d never even noticed Montalbo’s acne.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

Apple and Amazon remain in bullish chart patterns, with potential breakouts pointing toward $390 and $320, respectively.

From Barron's ● Oct. 8, 2026

"We know that a lack of sleep increases cortisol levels, which is a stress hormone that can lead to acne breakouts."

From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026

No one knows, but when technical breakouts align with supportive macro fundamentals and powerful flow dynamics, trends can often extend much further than many expect, he adds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

When kids did stage desperate, pathetic breakouts, it had been in small groups of Reds, Oranges, and Yellows.

From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken

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