break away
Idioms-
Leave hurriedly, escape, get loose. For example, The boy tried to break away, but his mother held onto his coat , or On the last lap the horse broke away from the pack . [First half of 1500s]
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Sever connections with a group. For example, It was hard for me to break away from that organization, but I knew it was necessary .
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Stop doing something, as in She broke away from work long enough to go out for lunch .
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Skaters bide their time in a peloton—before trying to break away from the bunch with a decisive burst.
Similar to Scotland, the top four break away after 22 March and will play each other twice to decide the title.
From BBC
One possibility is that sunlight is warming tiny icy particles that have broken away from the nucleus.
From Science Daily
Lily breaks away from her mother’s grasp and scampers down the hallway.
From Literature
That humming and quivering broke away the last little pieces of my rock-hard heart that I didn’t even know were still there, and tears came out of my eyes, but I wasn’t crying.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
