(transitive) To cause (a person or animal) to lose spirit or will; to crush the spirits of.
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Her child’s death broke Angela.
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Interrogators have used many forms of torture to break prisoners of war.
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The interrogator hoped to break her to get her testimony against her accomplices.
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If I had called, and had answered me, yet would I not beleeue that he had hearkened vnto my voice: For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.
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1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job 9:16–17:
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An old man, broken with the storms of state,Is come to lay his weary bones among ye;Give him a little earth for charity
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1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]: