breaker

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Something that breaks (something else).

   • a breaker of men's souls
2. 2

   A machine for breaking rocks, or for breaking coal at the mines.

3. 3

   The building in which such a machine is placed.

   • at the coal breaker
   • A: Is John at the tipple? B: No, he's at the breaker today.
4. ›+ 7 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      A person or company that specializes in breaking things

      A person or company that specializes in breaking things; their yard.

   2. 5

      A wave breaking into foam against the shore, or against a sandbank, or a rock or reef…

      A wave breaking into foam against the shore, or against a sandbank, or a rock or reef near the surface, considered a useful warning to ships of an underwater hazard

      • Now and then in the lagoon you hear the leaping of a fish[…]. And above all, ceaseless like time, is the dull roar of the breakers on the reef.
      • And then went down to the ship, Set keel to breakers, forth on the godly sea
      • There came a cry "Oh, there be breakers dead ahead!" / From the collier Nightingale
   3. 6

      A breakdancer.

   4. 7

      A user of CB radio.

      • Their radios had been blocked by a breaker calling himself Yankee Bucket Mouth.
   5. 8

      Ellipsis of circuit breaker.

      • breaker panel
   6. 9

      Used to open a conversation or call for a response on CB radio.

      • breaker one nine
      • Breaker to the Bandit
   7. 10

      A small cask of liquid kept permanently in a ship’s boat in case of shipwreck.

      • Then the conversation broke off, and there was little more talking, only a noise of men going backwards and forwards, and of putting down of kegs and the hollow gurgle of good liquor being poured from breakers into the casks.

The neighborhood