"break open" meaning in English

See break open in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: breaks open [present, singular, third-person], breaking open [participle, present], broke open [past], broken open [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|<,,broke,broken>}} break open (third-person singular simple present breaks open, present participle breaking open, simple past broke open, past participle broken open)
  1. (idiomatic) To make a breakthrough on a mystery or problem; to cause a breakthrough to be made. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-break_open-en-verb-E5BHe8Ob Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English light verb constructions, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 48 52 Disambiguation of English light verb constructions: 62 38 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 48 52 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 55 45
  2. (ambitransitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break, open. Tags: ambitransitive Derived forms: breakopen
    Sense id: en-break_open-en-verb-GW9tUGRQ Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English links with manual fragments, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 48 52 Disambiguation of English links with manual fragments: 42 58 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 48 52 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 55 45

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks open",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking open",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke open",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken open",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,broke,broken>"
      },
      "expansion": "break open (third-person singular simple present breaks open, present participle breaking open, simple past broke open, past participle broken open)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "62 38",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English light verb constructions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "55 45",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              10,
              15
            ],
            [
              26,
              30
            ]
          ],
          "text": "I think I broke this case open.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              21,
              27
            ],
            [
              38,
              42
            ]
          ],
          "text": "The new evidence has broken this case open.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make a breakthrough on a mystery or problem; to cause a breakthrough to be made."
      ],
      "id": "en-break_open-en-verb-E5BHe8Ob",
      "links": [
        [
          "breakthrough",
          "breakthrough"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To make a breakthrough on a mystery or problem; to cause a breakthrough to be made."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "42 58",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English links with manual fragments",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "48 52",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "55 45",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "5 95",
          "word": "breakopen"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              24,
              29
            ],
            [
              41,
              45
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Lacking a corkscrew, he broke the bottle open.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break, open."
      ],
      "id": "en-break_open-en-verb-GW9tUGRQ",
      "links": [
        [
          "break",
          "break#English"
        ],
        [
          "open",
          "open#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(ambitransitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break, open."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "ambitransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "break open"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English light verb constructions",
    "English links with manual fragments",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "breakopen"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks open",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking open",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke open",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken open",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "<,,broke,broken>"
      },
      "expansion": "break open (third-person singular simple present breaks open, present participle breaking open, simple past broke open, past participle broken open)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              10,
              15
            ],
            [
              26,
              30
            ]
          ],
          "text": "I think I broke this case open.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              21,
              27
            ],
            [
              38,
              42
            ]
          ],
          "text": "The new evidence has broken this case open.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make a breakthrough on a mystery or problem; to cause a breakthrough to be made."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "breakthrough",
          "breakthrough"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To make a breakthrough on a mystery or problem; to cause a breakthrough to be made."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              24,
              29
            ],
            [
              41,
              45
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Lacking a corkscrew, he broke the bottle open.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break, open."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "break",
          "break#English"
        ],
        [
          "open",
          "open#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(ambitransitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break, open."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "ambitransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "break open"
}

Download raw JSONL data for break open meaning in English (1.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English 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.