Word.ws English Dictionary

break the cycle

break the cycle verb: to act so as to end a repeating pattern of harmful or otherwise negative behavior.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To act so as to end a repeating pattern of harmful or otherwise negative behavior.

Forms of break the cycle

third-person singular presentbreaks the cycle
present participlebreaking the cycle
pastbroke the cycle
past participlebroken the cycle

Questions about break the cycle

What does break the cycle mean?
Break the cycle means to act so as to end a repeating pattern of harmful or otherwise negative behavior.
What part of speech is break the cycle?
Break the cycle is a verb.
What is the past tense of break the cycle?
The past tense of break the cycle is broke the cycle.

Words near break the cycle in the dictionary

  1. break squelch
  2. break stride
  3. break the back of
  4. break the bank
  5. break the buck
  6. break the cycle
  7. break the deadlock
  8. break the fourth wall
  9. break the ice
  10. break the internet
  11. break the internets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: break the cycle (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.

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

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