First recorded in 1945–50
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Gators like to get out in the fast break, but Iowa countered with a snail-paced offense style of any team in the nation this season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
During Palisades’ 71-56 semifinal victory over San Pedro on Saturday night, he stole the ball and was leading the fast break for what looked like could have been a breakaway layup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 22, 2026
A Jamerson block started another fast break that led to another Brown driving layup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025
The cornerstones of Booker’s game will now be doing traditional big-man things and using the speed that could make him a menace in the lob game and on the fast break.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2025
I got another chance on a fast break, and I could have passed, but I forced a difficult shot because I’d missed the last one.
From "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds
Jazzy Davidson hit a fast-break lay-in, drew a foul and made the free throw.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2026
The Suns outscored the Lakers 16-0 in fast-break points.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2025
The offense appeared to wake up when Brownell and Jerry Easter II got two fast-break layups off of two more Cal Poly turnovers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 4, 2025
New York was dominating the third quarter when Anunoby appeared to hurt himself attempting a fast-break layup.
From Seattle Times ● May 8, 2024
He scored a fast-break layup with his left hand, pulled us within four.
From "We Were Here" by Matt De La Peña
Only men were gathered here, with women remaining at home for iftar, the fast-breaking meal.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
The final sunset of Ramadan last week found me below a mosque in the Bronx, in a basement cafeteria, elbow to elbow with hungry Muslims awaiting that last fast-breaking meal of the year.
From Slate ● Apr. 5, 2025
Plainclothes agents arrested Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University graduate student from Turkey, on a sidewalk Tuesday as she walked to see friends for the traditional fast-breaking during the Islamic month of Ramadan.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2025
Speaking to a group of young people at a Ramadan fast-breaking meal in Ankara on Tuesday, President Erdogan urged patience and common sense amid what he described as "very sensitive days."
From BBC ● Mar. 25, 2025
Dave Mills, a vacuum cleaner off the back-boards, led a fast-breaking Seattle University team to victory last night.
From A Practical Guide to Self-Hypnosis by Melvin Powers
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.
