breaks

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of break.

   The river breaks through the old dam during heavy floods.

   She breaks the wax seal before reading the letter.

   Note

   Its most useful trait comes from break itself. The verb is ergative, so this form can take either party as its subject. In she breaks the seal, the subject is the one doing the breaking. In the seal breaks, the subject is the thing that gives way, and no agent is needed. Figurative uses split the same way: grief that breaks a person, or a person who breaks under grief.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of break.

   The factory schedules regular breaks for its workers throughout the shift.

   Sudden breaks in the cloud cover let sunlight onto the valley.

   Note

   One plural covers a whole family of meanings, from fractures to pauses. Most often it counts rests: workers take breaks across a shift, and in UK schools breaks are the short times between lessons for talking or play. The same form also names gaps that open in something and interruptions of continuity, so the surrounding words, not the ending, tell the reader which is meant.

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