breaking up

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To break or separate into pieces.
   • Break up the cheese and put it in the salad.
2. (intransitive) To break or separate into pieces; to disintegrate or come apart.
   • It broke up when it hit the ground.
3. (transitive) To upset greatly; to cause great emotional disturbance or unhappiness in.
   • "I remember his wail at the meeting, which began: 'In fifty years experience of scientific intercourse----' It quite broke the old man up."1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC
4. (idiomatic, intransitive) To end a (usually romantic or sexual) relationship.
   • She broke up with her boyfriend last week.
5. (intransitive, reciprocal) To end a (usually romantic or sexual) relationship with each other.
   • Jane and Stephen broke up.
6. (idiomatic, intransitive) To dissolve; to part.
   • The meeting finally broke up after a three-hour discussion.

See all 12 meanings of break up