breakup
Americannoun
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disintegration; disruption; dispersal.
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the ending of a personal, especially a romantic, relationship.
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(in Alaska and Canada)
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the melting and loosening of ice in rivers and harbors during the early spring.
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the first day on which such ice is soft or dispersed enough to permit ships to use the waterways.
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Informal. an act or instance of being convulsed with laughter.
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temporary distortion in a televised picture.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of breakup
First recorded in 1785–95; noun use of verb phrase break up
Explanation
A breakup is when something comes apart or separates into pieces, like the breakup of a comet that eventually produces a meteor shower we can see from Earth. The breakup of ice on a lake in spring, melting and cracking into separate chunks, means it's no longer safe to walk on. When a relationship ends that's a breakup too: "After the breakup, they moved out and got separate apartments, and now they share custody of their cat." You can also use this word for the split between other entities, like the breakup of a church into different sects or the breakup of a treaty between several countries.
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.
See Examples For:
Adding drama to the couple’s onscreen breakup, the actors recently got married in real life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
Later events in our lives, like entering a new relationship, experiencing a breakup or dealing with bereavement, can also be influential.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
If the deal falls through, Warner would also receive a $7 billion breakup fee.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The deals are rolling out under Kraft Heinz’s new chief executive, Steve Cahillane, who took the Chicago company’s reins earlier this year and initially was expected to carry out a complex corporate breakup.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Kweku asked Ifemelu, tentatively, almost formally; he, too, knew she was suffering from a breakup.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
There are famous breakups, and there are ones that upset the universe’s parasocial order.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2026
But expanding rights piecemeal creates a nightmare for divorce lawyers, who found themselves building the plane in midair with gay breakups in the aughts and early 2010s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2026
A lot of my friends are getting married, of course, but many of them have also been dealing with heavy personal news: breakups, layoffs and the deaths of family members and friends.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 19, 2026
When Boz Scaggs’s “Silk Degrees” was released 50 years ago this month, all 10 of the album’s songs were about lost love, breakups or characters down on their luck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
It was honestly worse than any of the breakups.
From "Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda" by Becky Albertalli
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.
