breakout

noun, adj — 9 senses

breakout

noun

Etymology Deverbal from break out. The video game genre is named after Breakout, the first game of this kind, released in 1976 by Atari.

7 senses
  1. 1An escape from prison.
  2. 2An escape from any restrictive or confining situation.
  3. 3The point at which visibility returns after passing…
  4. 4An outbreak (sudden eruption of disease etc.).
  5. 5A breakdown of statistics; a detailed view of component parts.
  6. 6A room in a hotel etc. that can be taken by a smaller…
  7. 7A style of video game that involves moving a paddle to…
1

An escape from prison.

2

An escape from any restrictive or confining situation.

3

Aeronautics, Aerospace, Aviation, Business, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences The point at which visibility returns after passing through clouds.

4

An outbreak (sudden eruption of disease etc.).

  • But for those of you who never had teenage acne or who had some teenage acne problems and outgrew them, it is a real shock to start having breakouts in the mid twenties to late thirties.1988, Thomas Goodman, Stephanie Young, Smart Face, page 115:
5

A breakdown of statistics; a detailed view of component parts.

6

A room in a hotel etc. that can be taken by a smaller group at a large conference.

7

Video games A style of video game that involves moving a paddle to deflect a ball into a wall of bricks to eliminate them one by one.

  • […] a "breakout" game where a ball is bounced off a bar at the bottom of the screen up to a wall of bricks. Each time the ball strikes a brick it is eliminated and points are awarded.1986, Media Review, volume 10, page 97:
  • […] a breakout game in Greenfoot […] In breakout the user hits a ball with a paddle into bricks […]2011, Mark Guzdial, Barbara Ericson, Problem Solving with Data Structures Using Java, page 355:
2 more examples
  • […] a breakout game clone on the left, with rectangular bricks.2016, James R. Parker, Python: An Introduction to Programming:
  • […] a breakout game which is based on a 1970's arcade game, where a player character moves a paddle on the lower part of the game screen in order to break bricks on the upper part of the game screen using a ball that may bounce back […]2018, Wee Hoe Tan, Design, Motivation, and Frameworks in Game-Based Learning, page 221:
Synonyms
jailbreak, prison break
Derived terms
breakout board, breakout character, breakout force, breakout group, breakout room, breakout session
Related terms
outbreak

breakout

adj

Etymology Deverbal from break out. The video game genre is named after Breakout, the first game of this kind, released in 1976 by Atari.

1

Of a book, film, or other work: leading its author to sudden mainstream success.

  • Then in 1991, Jada won her breakout role playing Lena James on NBC's A Different World.2009, Lisa Iannucci, Will Smith: A Biography, page 44:
2

Business, Electrical engineering, Electricity, Electromagnetism, Electronics, Energy, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Physics Splitting a signal into several signals.

  • breakout box; breakout cable

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.