How to use icebreaker in a sentence

11 example sentences · noun

Icebreaker means a ship designed to break through ice so that it, or other ships coming behind, can navigate on frozen seas. Example: “The new college hallmates were awkward with each other at first, but after a game of charades as an icebreaker, they were laughing like old friends.”

Examples of icebreaker by meaning

nounA ship designed to break through ice so that it, or other ships coming behind, can navigate on frozen seas.

My father's Bonneville was cutting its way toward us like an icebreaker moving through my whole state of consciousness.2004, Martin Torgoff, “Fearless, Immune, and Ready for All”, in Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945–2000, New...
The Australian Antarctic Division’s chartered icebreaker the Aurora Australis on a previous mission wedged in ice in Commonwealth Bay 10 nautical miles from Mawson’s Hut in Antarctica.2016 February 25, Paul Karp, “Aurora Australis icebreaker runs aground during blizzard in Antarctica”, in The Guardian, archived from the...

nounA game, activity, humorous anecdote, etc., designed to ease tension and encourage interaction among individuals in a...

The new college hallmates were awkward with each other at first, but after a game of charades as an icebreaker, they were laughing like old friends.
The key purpose of an icebreaker is to introduce your group members to each other and to introduce your training session topic.2011, Elaine Biech, chapter 11, in The Book of Road-Tested Activities, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN

nounA lively song and dance routine at the start of a musical.

At the moment the curtain went up there had to be a lively ensemble number of principals and chorus singing and dancing, the traditional “icebreaker” that also covered up the noise of late-arriving ticket holders getting to their seats.2014, Maggie Davis, Stage Door Canteen

More sentences with icebreaker

A common threat to icebreakers is besetment, where they are trapped in the ice and unable to ram the ice to escape.From the entry besetment
This is kept open for about two months during winter by icebreakers.1972, “TIENTSIN (T'IEN-CHING)”, in Encyclopedia Britannica, volume 21, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 1140, column 1. From the entry silt
“It will be good icebreaker for a family-style dinner.”2018 December 5, Celine Roberts, “Apteka and Whitfield Team Up for a Vegan Christmas Meal”, in Pittsburgh Magazine, Pittsburgh, Pa.…. From the entry opłatek
Still another icebreaker is shivering, the automatic, noncoordinated activation of muscle motions for the sole purpose of generating heat.2007 February 20, Natalie Angier, “A Mammal in Winter With a Furnace of Her Own”, in New York Times. From the entry noncoordinated
Finland, the world's only nation with no ice-free ports, builds more than half the world's icebreakers, many for the Soviet Union.1989 May, Priit J. Vesilind, “The Baltic: Arena of Power”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 614. From the entry ice-free
A tradesman who became seriously ill while at Davis Station in Antarctica is transferred by helicopter to the icebreaker ship Aurora Australis.2015 March 24, “Antarctic rescue mission launched to evacuate ill man from Australian base - video”, in The Guardian, archived from the…. From the entry Davis Station

Meaning of icebreaker

noun A ship designed to break through ice so that it, or other ships coming behind, can navigate on frozen seas.
noun A game, activity, humorous anecdote, etc., designed to ease tension and encourage interaction among individuals in a situation where they do not know each other well.
noun A lively song and dance routine at the start of a musical.

Full definition of icebreaker

Questions about icebreaker in a sentence

How do you use icebreaker in a sentence?: Icebreaker is used as a noun. For example: “The new college hallmates were awkward with each other at first, but after a game of charades as an icebreaker, they were laughing like old friends.”
What is a short sentence with icebreaker?: ““It will be good icebreaker for a family-style dinner.””
What does icebreaker mean?: Icebreaker means a ship designed to break through ice so that it, or other ships coming behind, can navigate on frozen seas.

Adapted from Wiktionary: icebreaker (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use icebreaker in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/icebreaker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.