Word.ws English Dictionary

broke gates

broke gates is the simple past of break gates.

Meaning of break gates

Verb

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

  1. (UK, dated, idiomatic, universities) To enter an Oxford or Cambridge college enclosure after the hour to which a student has been restricted.
    • He broke gates to-day; and then there was something that Grove did'nt seem inclined to be very explicit about.1868, “Willowstoke”, in The Light blue, a Cambridge university magazine, volume 3, page 210
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break, gates.
    • I have had horses break gates with me , and that both with and without getting a fall ; but candour must make me allow I never rode at one contemplating such a result ;1846, Harry Hieover, Stable Talk and Table Talk, Or, Spectacles for Young Sportsmen, page 32

Questions about broke gates

What is broke gates the simple past of?
Broke gates is the simple past of break gates.

Words near broke gates in the dictionary

  1. broke edge
  2. broke even
  3. broke fast
  4. broke free
  5. broke from
  6. broke gates
  7. broke ground
  8. broke in
  9. broke into
  10. broke into a run
  11. broke it

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: broke gates (page history and authors); break gates (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:

Cite this entry: “broke gates.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/broke_gates. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.