"give someone a break" meaning in English

See give someone a break in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: en-au-give someone a break.ogg Forms: gives someone a break [present, singular, third-person], giving someone a break [participle, present], gave someone a break [past], given someone a break [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|give<,,gave,given> someone a break}} give someone a break (third-person singular simple present gives someone a break, present participle giving someone a break, simple past gave someone a break, past participle given someone a break)
  1. (idiomatic, imperative) To stop harassing or demanding from someone. Tags: idiomatic, imperative
    Sense id: en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-JmbyA~cn Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English light verb constructions, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 24 36 40 Disambiguation of English light verb constructions: 35 33 32 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 34 33 33 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 35 32 34 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 35 33 32
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To allow someone a rest.
    Sense id: en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-rty~oSvi Categories (other): &lit not valid pagename, English entries with incorrect language header, English light verb constructions, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 24 36 40 Disambiguation of English light verb constructions: 35 33 32 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 34 33 33 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 35 32 34 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 35 33 32
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To provide someone with an opportunity for significant advancement..
    Sense id: en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-JG8GIc4I Categories (other): &lit not valid pagename, English entries with incorrect language header, English light verb constructions, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 24 36 40 Disambiguation of English light verb constructions: 35 33 32 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 34 33 33 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 35 32 34 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 35 33 32
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Related terms: gimme a break

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gives someone a break",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "giving someone a break",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gave someone a break",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "given someone a break",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "give<,,gave,given> someone a break"
      },
      "expansion": "give someone a break (third-person singular simple present gives someone a break, present participle giving someone a break, simple past gave someone a break, past participle given someone a break)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 49 51",
      "word": "gimme a break"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "24 36 40",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 33 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English light verb constructions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "34 33 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 32 34",
          "kind": "other",
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        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 33 32",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              5,
              20
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2003, Alecia Alexander, Everybody's a Critic, page 105:",
          "text": "“Oh, give me a break, sport. You want to pick my brain but you're not going ^([sic]) give me anything in return? What's up with that?”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To stop harassing or demanding from someone."
      ],
      "id": "en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-JmbyA~cn",
      "links": [
        [
          "harass",
          "harass"
        ],
        [
          "demand",
          "demand"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, imperative) To stop harassing or demanding from someone."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "imperative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "&lit not valid pagename",
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          "kind": "other",
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          "_dis": "35 33 32",
          "kind": "other",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
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          "_dis": "34 33 33",
          "kind": "other",
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          "_dis": "35 32 34",
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          "_dis": "35 33 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To allow someone a rest."
      ],
      "id": "en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-rty~oSvi",
      "links": [
        [
          "allow",
          "allow"
        ],
        [
          "rest",
          "rest"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "&lit not valid pagename",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
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          "_dis": "24 36 40",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 33 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English light verb constructions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "34 33 33",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 32 34",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "35 33 32",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To provide someone with an opportunity for significant advancement.."
      ],
      "id": "en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-JG8GIc4I",
      "links": [
        [
          "provide",
          "provide"
        ],
        [
          "opportunity",
          "opportunity"
        ],
        [
          "significant",
          "significant"
        ],
        [
          "advancement",
          "advancement"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "en-au-give someone a break.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/En-au-give_someone_a_break.ogg/En-au-give_someone_a_break.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/En-au-give_someone_a_break.ogg"
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  ],
  "word": "give someone a break"
}
{
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    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English light verb constructions",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Translation table header lacks gloss"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gives someone a break",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "giving someone a break",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gave someone a break",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "given someone a break",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "give<,,gave,given> someone a break"
      },
      "expansion": "give someone a break (third-person singular simple present gives someone a break, present participle giving someone a break, simple past gave someone a break, past participle given someone a break)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "gimme a break"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              5,
              20
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2003, Alecia Alexander, Everybody's a Critic, page 105:",
          "text": "“Oh, give me a break, sport. You want to pick my brain but you're not going ^([sic]) give me anything in return? What's up with that?”",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To stop harassing or demanding from someone."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "harass",
          "harass"
        ],
        [
          "demand",
          "demand"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic, imperative) To stop harassing or demanding from someone."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "imperative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "&lit not valid pagename"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To allow someone a rest."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "allow",
          "allow"
        ],
        [
          "rest",
          "rest"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "&lit not valid pagename"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To provide someone with an opportunity for significant advancement.."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "provide",
          "provide"
        ],
        [
          "opportunity",
          "opportunity"
        ],
        [
          "significant",
          "significant"
        ],
        [
          "advancement",
          "advancement"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "audio": "en-au-give someone a break.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/6/62/En-au-give_someone_a_break.ogg/En-au-give_someone_a_break.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/En-au-give_someone_a_break.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "give someone a break"
}

Download raw JSONL data for give someone a break meaning in English (2.3kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-29 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-20 using wiktextract (4eaa824 and ea19a0a). 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.