"break the buck" meaning in English

See break the buck in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-break the buck.ogg [Australia] Forms: breaks the buck [present, singular, third-person], breaking the buck [participle, present], broke the buck [past], broken the buck [participle, past]
Etymology: Break (as in break the bank) + the + buck (“dollar (colloquial)”). Etymology templates: {{m|en|break|Break}} Break, {{m|en|break the bank}} break the bank, {{m|en|the}} the, {{m|en|buck||dollar (colloquial)}} buck (“dollar (colloquial)”) Head templates: {{en-verb|break<,,broke,broken> the buck}} break the buck (third-person singular simple present breaks the buck, present participle breaking the buck, simple past broke the buck, past participle broken the buck)
  1. (US, idiomatic, finance, of a money-market fund) To fall below the value of one dollar per share. Tags: US, idiomatic Categories (topical): Finance

Download JSON data for break the buck meaning in English (3.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "break",
        "3": "Break"
      },
      "expansion": "Break",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "break the bank"
      },
      "expansion": "break the bank",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "the"
      },
      "expansion": "the",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "buck",
        "3": "",
        "4": "dollar (colloquial)"
      },
      "expansion": "buck (“dollar (colloquial)”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Break (as in break the bank) + the + buck (“dollar (colloquial)”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks the buck",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking the buck",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke the buck",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken the buck",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "break<,,broke,broken> the buck"
      },
      "expansion": "break the buck (third-person singular simple present breaks the buck, present participle breaking the buck, simple past broke the buck, past participle broken the buck)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "American English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English light verb constructions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English predicates",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Finance",
          "orig": "en:Finance",
          "parents": [
            "Business",
            "Economics",
            "Society",
            "Social sciences",
            "All topics",
            "Sciences",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2000, Charles A. Jaffe, Chuck Jaffe’s Lifetime Guide to Mutual Funds: An Owner’s Manual, Perseus Books Group, page 110",
          "text": "In 1994, during the Orange County bankruptcy, a few funds were poised to break the buck, until their parent companies stepped in.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 September 19, “Money-Market Funds Get $50 Billion Backstop From US (Update1)”, in Bloomberg",
          "text": "\"We were likely going to see more funds halt redemptions\" and break the buck. The insurance program is part of a wider rescue package […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fall below the value of one dollar per share."
      ],
      "id": "en-break_the_buck-en-verb-OBBIISwJ",
      "links": [
        [
          "finance",
          "finance#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "value",
          "value"
        ],
        [
          "dollar",
          "dollar"
        ],
        [
          "share",
          "share"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, finance, of a money-market fund) To fall below the value of one dollar per share."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of a money-market fund"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "finance"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-break the buck.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ee/En-au-break_the_buck.ogg/En-au-break_the_buck.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/En-au-break_the_buck.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "break the buck"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "break",
        "3": "Break"
      },
      "expansion": "Break",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "break the bank"
      },
      "expansion": "break the bank",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "the"
      },
      "expansion": "the",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "buck",
        "3": "",
        "4": "dollar (colloquial)"
      },
      "expansion": "buck (“dollar (colloquial)”)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Break (as in break the bank) + the + buck (“dollar (colloquial)”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "breaks the buck",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "breaking the buck",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broke the buck",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "broken the buck",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "break<,,broke,broken> the buck"
      },
      "expansion": "break the buck (third-person singular simple present breaks the buck, present participle breaking the buck, simple past broke the buck, past participle broken the buck)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "American English",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English light verb constructions",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English predicates",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "en:Finance"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2000, Charles A. Jaffe, Chuck Jaffe’s Lifetime Guide to Mutual Funds: An Owner’s Manual, Perseus Books Group, page 110",
          "text": "In 1994, during the Orange County bankruptcy, a few funds were poised to break the buck, until their parent companies stepped in.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2008 September 19, “Money-Market Funds Get $50 Billion Backstop From US (Update1)”, in Bloomberg",
          "text": "\"We were likely going to see more funds halt redemptions\" and break the buck. The insurance program is part of a wider rescue package […]",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To fall below the value of one dollar per share."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "finance",
          "finance#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "value",
          "value"
        ],
        [
          "dollar",
          "dollar"
        ],
        [
          "share",
          "share"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(US, idiomatic, finance, of a money-market fund) To fall below the value of one dollar per share."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "of a money-market fund"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US",
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "business",
        "finance"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-break the buck.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ee/En-au-break_the_buck.ogg/En-au-break_the_buck.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ee/En-au-break_the_buck.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "break the buck"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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.