breakaway
nounEtymology From break + away, a deverbal from break away.
11 senses
- 1The act of breaking away from something.
- 2A group of riders which has gone ahead of the peloton.
- 3A situation in the game where one or more players of a…
- 4The act of getting away from one's opponent; the…
- 5A stampede of animals.
- 6An animal that breaks away from a herd.
- 7An eroding steep slope on the edge of a plateau; an escarpment.
- 8A channel of floodwater that has burst from its usual…
- 9A particular yo-yo trick http://yoyo.wikia.com/wiki/Breakaway.
- 10A swing dance in which the leader occasionally swings…
- 11An item of scenery designed to be broken or destroyed…
1
The act of breaking away from something.
- 1932, Alan Lennox-Boyd, Hansard, 10 May, 1932, Finance Bill, https://web.archive.org/web/20190212095659/https://www.hansard-corpus.org/ […] this Finance Bill represents a definite breakaway from the old practice of mass bribing, vote catching, and political Finance Bills which we were in grave danger of establishing as a permanent part of our national activities.
- If the horse had been any good—or if he had known how to get any good out of the horse—he would have risked everything on a breakaway and a wild gallop.1954, C. S. Lewis, chapter 11, in The Horse and His Boy, Collins, published 1998:
3 more examples
- Following a breakaway of the test train near Huntingdon during final trials, the start of the London-Newcastle-Edinburgh "Roadrailer" service scheduled for August 19 was postponed.1963 September, Modern Railways, page 146:
- During all that time, the French-speaking province of Quebec demanded additional powers to preserve its language and unique culture, while separatist pressure, generated by the Parti Quebecois, threatened breakaway if the demands were frustrated.1992 December 21, Michael S. Serrill, “Back On Track”, in Time:
- […] the adoption of the veil by Muslim women in West European countries is often justified as a mark of their autonomy, a breakaway from the sexualizing influences of Western culture.2011, Jeffrey Weeks, The Languages of Sexuality, Routledge, page 158:
2
A group of riders which has gone ahead of the peloton.
- The summit of the climb came 38km from the end of stage 14, which began in Limoux and ended in Foix in the foothills of the Pyrenees, and the incident occurred as the peloton emerged into the light and passed under the banner at the top, a quarter of an hour behind a five-man breakaway.2012 July 15, Richard Williams, Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track, Guardian Unlimited:
3
Hobbies, Ice hockey, Lifestyle, Skating, Sports A situation in the game where one or more players of a team attack towards the goal of the other team without having any defenders in front of them.
- 2015, Eric MacKenzie, "Canucks fall 2-1 to Oilers in OT," vancouver24hrs.ca, 18 October, 2015, https://web.archive.org/web/20151020145050/http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2015/10/19/canucks-fall-2-1-to-oilers-in-ot With the game tied 1-1 early in the third, Henrik got free on a breakaway and was stopped by Oilers goalie Anders Nilsson […]
4
Boxing, Government, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Martial arts, Military, Politics, Sports, War The act of getting away from one's opponent; the separation of the boxers after a spell of infighting.
- 2011, Colleen Aycock and Mark Scott (eds.), The First Black Boxing Champions: Essays on Fighters of the 1800s to the 1920s, Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Appendix: The Great Fights, George Dixon vs. Jack Skelly (September 6, 1892), p. 262, The gong sounded almost immediately after the breakaway.
5
Australia A stampede of animals.
6
Australia An animal that breaks away from a herd.
- 1893, The Argus, 29 April, 1893, p. 4, col. 4, cited in Edward Ellis Morris, Austral English: A Dictionary of Australasian Words, Phrases and Usages, 1898, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks09/0900231.txt The smartest stock horse that ever brought his rider up within whip distance of a breakaway or dodged the horns of a sulky beast, took the chance.
8
Australia A channel of floodwater that has burst from its usual course; or the track or channel eroded by the water.
- He was forced to slow to a walking pace in order to negotiate a rack of deep breakaways.2002, Alex Miller, Journey to the Stone Country, Allen & Unwin, published 2003, page 353:
9
A particular yo-yo trick http://yoyo.wikia.com/wiki/Breakaway.
- After watching some older kids try out for the New York City Parks Department's yo-yo championship, Stephen Awerman, an eleven-year-old from Jamaica, L.I., decided that he could hold his own with the big boys. He spun his yo-yo through the required figures—spinner, walking-the-dog, breakaway[…]—then unreeled 312 loop-the-loops to latch onto the title.1958 August 5, “Scoreboard”, in Time:
10
A swing dance in which the leader occasionally swings the follower out into an open position.
11
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Theater An item of scenery designed to be broken or destroyed during the performance.
- EFFECT […] This usually refers to special effects such as flash pots, torches, crashes, breakaways, etc.1980, Robert Anderson, Theatre Talk, page 19:
- Derived terms
- breakaway neckline, breakaway suspenders
- Related terms
- escape