# breaking

Pronunciation: say "BRAY-king" /ˈbɹeɪkɪŋ/

## Verb

1. Present participle of break. — present participle and gerund of break
   - Simple: Present participle of break. Use this -ing form when the breaking is happening now.
   - _The storm left branches breaking under the weight of the ice._
   - _Breaking the seal on the jar released a sharp smell._

## Noun

2. The act by which something is broken or split into separate pieces.
   - Simple: The act of splitting something into pieces or making it stop working.
   - _The breaking of the dam sent millions of gallons rushing downstream._
   - _A sharp breaking of the rope sent the climber sliding backward._
3. An athletic street dance style built on footwork, spins, and freeze poses, performed within hip-hop culture.
   - Simple: A street dance with spins, footwork, and freeze poses, done to hip-hop music.
   - _She got into breaking after watching a crew perform downtown._
   - _Breaking made its debut as a competitive event at the Paris Olympics._
4. A change in which a single vowel sound shifts into a diphthong, a vowel that glides from one sound to another.
   - Simple: In language study, when a single vowel sound turns into a two-part vowel sound.
   - _The breaking of West Germanic vowels reshaped the sound of early English._
   - _Historical linguists trace the breaking of long monophthongs across many centuries._
5. A form of musical ornamentation in which groups of short notes replace longer ones.
   - Simple: In music, splitting one long note into several quick short notes for decoration.
   - _The fiddler's breaking turned a plain reel into something ornate._
   - _Baroque players often used breaking to decorate a long held note._

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/breaking (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).