Word.ws English Dictionary

broken down

broken down is the past participle of break down.

Adjective

broken down (comparative more broken down, superlative most broken down)

  1. No longer in working order; broken.
    Synonyms:
    dead
  2. Of a horse, no longer useful for work or riding due to illness or infirmity.
  3. Ruined in character or strength.
    • We looked our last upon them and the indescribable rosy glow in which they lay, and then with hearts far too heavy for words we left them, and crept thence broken-down men - so broken down that we even renounced the chance of practically immortal life, because all that made life valuable had gone...1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
  4. Separated into component parts; decomposed; disassembled; deconstructed.

Meaning of break down

Verb

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

  1. (intransitive, usually, vehicle) To stop functioning.
    • I am afraid my computer will break down if I try to run it at too high a speed.
  2. (intransitive) To unexpectedly collapse, physically or in structure.
  3. (transitive) To intentionally demolish; to pull down.
  4. (intransitive) To fail, especially socially or for political reasons.
    • Talks broke down between Prime Minister John Doe and the opposition party.
  5. (idiomatic, intransitive) To give in or give up: relent, concede, surrender.
    • Is it worth taking it to a repair shop, or should I just break down and buy a new one?
  6. (ergative, figuratively) To render or to become unstable due to stress, to collapse physically or mentally.
    • Near-synonym: come undone
    Synonyms:
    come undone

See all 12 meanings of break down

Synonyms of broken down

Forms of broken down

comparativemore broken down
superlativemost broken down

Questions about broken down

What does broken down mean?
Broken down means no longer in working order; broken.
What is broken down the past participle of?
Broken down is the past participle of break down.
What part of speech is broken down?
Broken down is an adjective.

Words near broken down in the dictionary

  1. broken cover
  2. Broken Creek
  3. Broken Dam
  4. broken diagonal
  5. broken diagonals
  6. broken down
  7. broken down to brass tacks
  8. broken edge
  9. broken even
  10. broken fast
  11. broken field

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: broken down (page history and authors); break down (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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Cite this entry: “broken down.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/broken_down. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.