Word.ws English Dictionary

broke open

broke open is the simple past of break open.

Meaning of break open

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To make a breakthrough on a mystery or problem; to cause a breakthrough to be made.
    • I think I broke this case open.
    Synonyms:
    force
  2. (ambitransitive) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see break, open.
    • Lacking a corkscrew, he broke the bottle open.

Questions about broke open

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

Words near broke open in the dictionary

  1. broke one's maiden
  2. broke one's neck
  3. broke one's promise
  4. broke one's stride
  5. broke one's word
  6. broke open
  7. broke out
  8. broke ranks
  9. broke rigor
  10. broke shins
  11. broke someone's back

Source and license

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