"break free" meaning in All languages combined

See break free on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: breaks free [present, singular, third-person], breaking free [participle, present], broke free [past], broken free [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|<,,broke,broken>}} break free (third-person singular simple present breaks free, present participle breaking free, simple past broke free, past participle broken free)
  1. To liberate oneself; to free oneself; to become free (from or of something or someone). Related terms: emancipate Translations (to gain freedom): uwalniać się [imperfective] (Polish), uwolnić się [perfective] (Polish), oswobadzać się [imperfective] (Polish), oswobodzić się [perfective] (Polish)

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks free",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking free",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke free",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken free",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,broke,broken>"
      },
      "expansion": "break free (third-person singular simple present breaks free, present participle breaking free, simple past broke free, past participle broken free)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
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        {
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          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              27,
              37
            ]
          ],
          "text": "During the storm, the boat broke free from its moorings.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              42,
              52
            ]
          ],
          "text": "To address the climate crisis, we need to break free of our addiction to fossil fuels.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "1721, Aaron Hill, The Fatal Extravagance, London: T. Jauncy, [Scene 1], p. 9,\n[…] I saw his Lady,\nWild, with a Storm of Grief! Her Hair dishevel’d!\nAnd her loose Robes, blown, careless, by the Wind!\nStruggling, with weeping Servants, to break free."
        },
        {
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          "ref": "1883 June, Ralph Iron [pseudonym; Olive Schreiner], “Times and Seasons”, in The Story of an African Farm, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: H. M. Caldwell Company, →OCLC, part II, section VII, page 171:",
          "text": "When the soul breaks free from the arms of a superstition, bits of the claws and talons break themselves off in him. It is not the work of a day to squeeze them out.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              72,
              82
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter IX, in Kim, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 235:",
          "text": "[A]n elephant was captured for a time by the king's hunters and, ere he broke free, beringed with a grievous leg-iron.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              98,
              109
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1968, Desmond Bagley, The Vivero Letter, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Chapter 8, section 7, p. 189:",
          "text": "[…] the chopper slowed and wheeled around the treetop. It was one of the big ones whose crown had broken free of the rest to spread luxuriantly in the upper air […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              101,
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            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1993, Jurassic Park, Universal Pictures, →OCLC:",
          "text": "If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained- life breaks free, it expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously but,... uh... well, there it is.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              40,
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            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012 April 9, Mandeep Sanghera, “Tottenham 1 - 2 Norwich”, in BBC Sport:",
          "text": "Tottenham left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto broke free after a clever one-two with Emmanuel Adebayor, only to see his shot brilliantly saved by the Norwich keeper.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To liberate oneself; to free oneself; to become free (from or of something or someone)."
      ],
      "id": "en-break_free-en-verb-UF72nM-8",
      "links": [
        [
          "liberate",
          "liberate"
        ],
        [
          "free",
          "free"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "emancipate"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "to gain freedom",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "uwalniać się"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "to gain freedom",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "uwolnić się"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "to gain freedom",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "oswobadzać się"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "lang_code": "pl",
          "sense": "to gain freedom",
          "tags": [
            "perfective"
          ],
          "word": "oswobodzić się"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "break free"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks free",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking free",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke free",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken free",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,broke,broken>"
      },
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      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "emancipate"
    }
  ],
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    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Terms with Polish translations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
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              27,
              37
            ]
          ],
          "text": "During the storm, the boat broke free from its moorings.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              42,
              52
            ]
          ],
          "text": "To address the climate crisis, we need to break free of our addiction to fossil fuels.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "1721, Aaron Hill, The Fatal Extravagance, London: T. Jauncy, [Scene 1], p. 9,\n[…] I saw his Lady,\nWild, with a Storm of Grief! Her Hair dishevel’d!\nAnd her loose Robes, blown, careless, by the Wind!\nStruggling, with weeping Servants, to break free."
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              14,
              25
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1883 June, Ralph Iron [pseudonym; Olive Schreiner], “Times and Seasons”, in The Story of an African Farm, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: H. M. Caldwell Company, →OCLC, part II, section VII, page 171:",
          "text": "When the soul breaks free from the arms of a superstition, bits of the claws and talons break themselves off in him. It is not the work of a day to squeeze them out.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              72,
              82
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1900 December – 1901 October, Rudyard Kipling, chapter IX, in Kim, London: Macmillan and Co., published 1901, →OCLC, page 235:",
          "text": "[A]n elephant was captured for a time by the king's hunters and, ere he broke free, beringed with a grievous leg-iron.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              98,
              109
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1968, Desmond Bagley, The Vivero Letter, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Chapter 8, section 7, p. 189:",
          "text": "[…] the chopper slowed and wheeled around the treetop. It was one of the big ones whose crown had broken free of the rest to spread luxuriantly in the upper air […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              101,
              112
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1993, Jurassic Park, Universal Pictures, →OCLC:",
          "text": "If there's one thing the history of evolution has taught us is that life will not be contained- life breaks free, it expands to new territories, and it crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously but,... uh... well, there it is.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              40,
              50
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2012 April 9, Mandeep Sanghera, “Tottenham 1 - 2 Norwich”, in BBC Sport:",
          "text": "Tottenham left-back Benoit Assou-Ekotto broke free after a clever one-two with Emmanuel Adebayor, only to see his shot brilliantly saved by the Norwich keeper.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To liberate oneself; to free oneself; to become free (from or of something or someone)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "liberate",
          "liberate"
        ],
        [
          "free",
          "free"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "to gain freedom",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "uwalniać się"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "to gain freedom",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "uwolnić się"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "to gain freedom",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "oswobadzać się"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "lang_code": "pl",
      "sense": "to gain freedom",
      "tags": [
        "perfective"
      ],
      "word": "oswobodzić się"
    }
  ],
  "word": "break free"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-08-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-08-05 using wiktextract (872fc7b and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.