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BREAKER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A device that trips like a switch and opens the circuit when overloaded
Synonyms:
breaker; circuit breaker
Classified under:
Nouns denoting man-made objects
Hypernyms ("breaker" is a kind of...):
electrical fuse; fuse; safety fuse (an electrical device that can interrupt the flow of electrical current when it is overloaded)
Derivation:
break (interrupt the flow of current in)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Waves breaking on the shore
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("breaker" is a kind of...):
moving ridge; wave (one of a series of ridges that moves across the surface of a liquid (especially across a large body of water))
Derivation:
break (curl over and fall apart in surf or foam, of waves)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A quarry worker who splits off blocks of stone
Synonyms:
breaker; ledgeman
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("breaker" is a kind of...):
quarrier; quarryman (a man who works in a quarry)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "breaker"):
stone breaker (someone who breaks up stone)
Derivation:
break (destroy the integrity of; usually by force; cause to separate into pieces or fragments)
break (break a piece from a whole)
Context examples:
Every appearance it had then presented, bore the expression of being swelled; and the height to which the breakers rose, and, looking over one another, bore one another down, and rolled in, in interminable hosts, was most appalling.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The researchers compared the newly discovered circuit breaker mechanism to lightning striking a city power grid: Lights may flicker over the whole city, but once the circuit breaker activates, only part of the city loses power.
(Researchers discover mitochondrial “circuit breaker” that protects heart from damage, NIH)
He was waiting for the rush of a big breaker whereon to jump the reef.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
There was no sound but that of the distant breakers, mounting from all round, and the chirp of countless insects in the brush.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Water was a consideration, and I robbed every boat aboard of its breaker.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
A bluff cape to the north and a long spit to the south marked the mouth of the noble river, with a low-lying island of silted sand in the centre, all shrouded and curtained by the spume of the breakers.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The water was out, over miles and miles of the flat country adjacent to Yarmouth; and every sheet and puddle lashed its banks, and had its stress of little breakers setting heavily towards us.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
One of those mechanisms, the researchers found, acts much like a circuit breaker, allowing energy to continue moving throughout the heart muscle cells even when individual components of those cells—the mitochondria—have been damaged.
(Researchers discover mitochondrial “circuit breaker” that protects heart from damage, NIH)
The book is bound to be a record-breaker.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
At the end of the straits, I made sure we must fall into some bar of raging breakers, where all my troubles would be ended speedily; and though I could, perhaps, bear to die, I could not bear to look upon my fate as it approached.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
