Word.ws English Dictionary

break the back of

break the back of verb: to complete the greater part of (a project) or solve the most critical part of (a problem).

Verb

break the back of (third-person singular simple present breaks the back of, present participle breaking the back of, simple past broke the back of, past participle broken the back of)

  1. (idiomatic) To complete the greater part of (a project) or solve the most critical part of (a problem).
    • I've broken the back of painting the shed – I'll finish it after lunch.
    • […] broke the back of the housing problem in this country .1946, Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard).
  2. To overburden (a person, group, or organization).
    • You will have heard of the three kathia system. It broke the back of the farmers.1962, Rajendra Prasad, Legacy of Gandhiji: Speeches, page 6
    • And it's about helping people provide for their workers, but doing it—I;m talking about health care, training—gut doing it in a way that just doesn't break the back of the small business that's struggling anyway and make them lay off workers in order to accommodate some Federal mandate from...1992, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, page 1627
  3. To cripple.
    • I don't think it has broken the back of organized crime at all in the New England area, any more than I think when we got convictions in Buffalo that it broke the back of organized crime in Buffalo, or when Mr. McKeon got convictions in Detroit it broke the back of organized crime in Detroit.1970, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Operations. Legal and Monetary Affairs Subcommittee, Federal Effort Against Organized Crime, page 60
    • To prop up capitalism, the bosses and politicians from both parties are driving down the standard of living for the 99 percent and keeping the profits for themselves. In order to do this, they need to break the back of the labor movement.2015, Nellie Wong, Talking Back: Voices of Color

break the back of meaning in Kannada

break the back of in Kannada

ಬೆನ್ನುಮುರಿ

Examples of break the back of in a sentence

  • I think we will find, or I predict that we will find, that during the course of this year we will break the back of the energy crisis.1974, The 1974 Economic Report of the President:
  • I plan to grab my chance to take a break by trying to break the back of all the tasks that have flown through the ether into my inbox during the course of the morning.2023, Kas Hawes, The Heart of the Matter: A Day in the Life of a GP:
  • It'll break the back of people who are sick.2004, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Generic Pharmaceuticals, page 86:

Forms of break the back of

third-person singular presentbreaks the back of
present participlebreaking the back of
pastbroke the back of
past participlebroken the back of

Questions about break the back of

What does break the back of mean?
Break the back of means to complete the greater part of (a project) or solve the most critical part of (a problem).
What is break the back of in Kannada?
Break the back of in Kannada is ಬೆನ್ನುಮುರಿ. See Break the back of meaning in Kannada.
How do you use break the back of in a sentence?
I think we will find, or I predict that we will find, that during the course of this year we will break the back of the energy crisis.
What part of speech is break the back of?
Break the back of is a verb.
What is the past tense of break the back of?
The past tense of break the back of is broke the back of.

Words near break the back of in the dictionary

  1. break someone's balls
  2. break someone's face
  3. break someone's heart
  4. break squelch
  5. break stride
  6. break the back of
  7. break the bank
  8. break the buck
  9. break the cycle
  10. break the deadlock
  11. break the fourth wall

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: break the back of (page history and authors); break the back of (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-break the back of.ogg.

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