BREAK THROUGH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does break through mean? 

• BREAK THROUGH (verb)
  The verb BREAK THROUGH has 3 senses:

1. pass through (a barrier)

2. penetrate

3. break out

  Familiarity information: BREAK THROUGH used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BREAK THROUGH (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pass through (a barrier)

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break through; crack

Context example:

Registrations cracked through the 30,000 mark in the county

Hypernyms (to "break through" is one way to...):

pass (go across or through)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Penetrate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break through; come through

Context example:

The rescue team broke through the wall in the mine shaft

Hypernyms (to "break through" is one way to...):

appear (come into sight or view)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

breakthrough (a penetration of a barrier such as an enemy's defense)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Break out

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

break through; come out; erupt; push through

Context example:

The tooth erupted and had to be extracted

Hypernyms (to "break through" is one way to...):

appear (come into sight or view)

Verb group:

erupt (appear on the skin)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "break through"):

dehisce (burst or split open)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

 Context examples 

However, they gradually weaken as the hatching period approaches to make it easier for the chicks to break through the shell.

(Study paves way for healthier and more robust eggs, University of Granada)

The Churchills might not have a word to say in return; but then, you would have no habits of early obedience and long observance to break through.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Did I break through one of your rings, that you spread that damned ice on the causeway?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A closed injury does not break through the skull.

(Head Injuries, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He told, too, how he had heard from his grandfather that many, many princes had come, and had tried to break through the thicket, but that they had all stuck fast in it, and died.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

For years I have endeavoured to break through the veil which shrouded it, and at last the time came when I seized my thread and followed it, until it led me, after a thousand cunning windings, to ex-Professor Moriarty of mathematical celebrity.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her sensations were indefinable, and so were they a few minutes afterwards upon hearing Henry Crawford, who had a chair between herself and Tom, ask the latter in an undervoice whether there were any plans for resuming the play after the present happy interruption (with a courteous glance at Sir Thomas), because, in that case, he should make a point of returning to Mansfield at any time required by the party: he was going away immediately, being to meet his uncle at Bath without delay; but if there were any prospect of a renewal of Lovers' Vows, he should hold himself positively engaged, he should break through every other claim, he should absolutely condition with his uncle for attending them whenever he might be wanted.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“When Em'ly got strong again,” said Mr. Peggotty, after another short interval of silence, “she cast about to leave that good young creetur, and get to her own country. The husband was come home, then; and the two together put her aboard a small trader bound to Leghorn, and from that to France. She had a little money, but it was less than little as they would take for all they done. I'm a'most glad on it, though they was so poor! What they done, is laid up wheer neither moth or rust doth corrupt, and wheer thieves do not break through nor steal. Mas'r Davy, it'll outlast all the treasure in the wureld.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“It is said, though I can scarce bring myself to believe it, that they will send a ball twice as far as a bowman can shoot his shaft, and with such force as to break through armor of proof.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)