Word.ws English Dictionary

broken gates

broken gates is the past participle 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 broken gates

What is broken gates the past participle of?
Broken gates is the past participle of break gates.

Words near broken gates in the dictionary

  1. broken fast
  2. broken field
  3. broken fields
  4. broken free
  5. broken from
  6. broken gates
  7. Broken Glass Republican
  8. Broken Glass Republicans
  9. broken ground
  10. Broken Head
  11. broken heart

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: broken 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.

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