"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 [Australia] 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) To allow someone a rest. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-jwqCKrPY Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English entries with language name categories using raw markup, English light verb constructions, English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 64 11 19 6 Disambiguation of English entries with language name categories using raw markup: 58 11 22 9 Disambiguation of English light verb constructions: 63 14 17 7 Disambiguation of English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys: 56 13 22 9
  2. (idiomatic) To stop harassing or demanding from someone. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-JmbyA~cn
  3. (idiomatic) To provide someone with an opportunity for significant advancement. Tags: idiomatic
    Sense id: en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-zWH1OQm4
  4. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see give, a, break.
    Sense id: en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-JsZvfxkz

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for give someone a break meaning in English (3.1kB)

{
  "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",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "64 11 19 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "58 11 22 9",
          "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+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "63 14 17 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English light verb constructions",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "56 13 22 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To allow someone a rest."
      ],
      "id": "en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-jwqCKrPY",
      "links": [
        [
          "allow",
          "allow"
        ],
        [
          "rest",
          "rest"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To allow someone a rest."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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 give me anything in return? What's up with that?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "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) To stop harassing or demanding from someone."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide someone with an opportunity for significant advancement."
      ],
      "id": "en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-zWH1OQm4",
      "links": [
        [
          "provide",
          "provide"
        ],
        [
          "opportunity",
          "opportunity"
        ],
        [
          "significant",
          "significant"
        ],
        [
          "advancement",
          "advancement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To provide someone with an opportunity for significant advancement."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see give, a, break."
      ],
      "id": "en-give_someone_a_break-en-verb-JsZvfxkz",
      "links": [
        [
          "give",
          "give#English"
        ],
        [
          "a",
          "a#English"
        ],
        [
          "break",
          "break#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "give someone a break"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
    "English lemmas",
    "English light verb constructions",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "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",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To allow someone a rest."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "allow",
          "allow"
        ],
        [
          "rest",
          "rest"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To allow someone a rest."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "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 give me anything in return? What's up with that?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To stop harassing or demanding from someone."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "harass",
          "harass"
        ],
        [
          "demand",
          "demand"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To stop harassing or demanding from someone."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide someone with an opportunity for significant advancement."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "provide",
          "provide"
        ],
        [
          "opportunity",
          "opportunity"
        ],
        [
          "significant",
          "significant"
        ],
        [
          "advancement",
          "advancement"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) To provide someone with an opportunity for significant advancement."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see give, a, break."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "give",
          "give#English"
        ],
        [
          "a",
          "a#English"
        ],
        [
          "break",
          "break#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "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",
      "tags": [
        "Australia"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (AU)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "give someone a break"
}

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.