break loose

Idioms

Escape from restraint, as in The boat broke loose from its moorings, or He finally broke loose from the school of abstract expressionism. This expression also appears in all hell breaks loose, which indicates a state of fury or chaos, as in When Dad finds out you broke his watch, all hell will break loose, or When the children saw the dead pigeon in the hall, all hell broke loose. [Early 1400s]

Example Sentences

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break loose

Andreas Skov Olsen floated in a cross and all hell was about to break loose.

From BBC ● Mar. 1, 2026

As spring approaches, the sun warms the slopes and large ice blocks -- sometimes a meter long -- break loose.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2025

When the foundations of a civilization crack, all hell can break loose.

From Salon ● May 21, 2023

Scientists had been expecting the iceberg to break loose for a while.

From NewsForKids.net ● Feb. 2, 2023

All hell would break loose and then no more worrying and fretting and fuming; he’d hit straight up that road with everything he had.

From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara

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

break loose

Example Sentences

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