'To break upon' definitions:
Definition of 'To break upon'
From: GCIDE
- Break \Break\ (br[=a]k), v. i.
- 1. To come apart or divide into two or more pieces, usually with suddenness and violence; to part; to burst asunder. [1913 Webster]
- 2. To open spontaneously, or by pressure from within, as a bubble, a tumor, a seed vessel, a bag. [1913 Webster]
- Else the bottle break, and the wine runneth out. --Math. ix. 17. [1913 Webster]
- 3. To burst forth; to make its way; to come to view; to appear; to dawn. [1913 Webster]
- The day begins to break, and night is fled. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- And from the turf a fountain broke, and gurgled at our feet. --Wordsworth. [1913 Webster]
- 4. To burst forth violently, as a storm. [1913 Webster]
- The clouds are still above; and, while I speak, A second deluge o'er our head may break. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
- 5. To open up; to be scattered; to be dissipated; as, the clouds are breaking. [1913 Webster]
- At length the darkness begins to break. --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
- 6. To become weakened in constitution or faculties; to lose health or strength. [1913 Webster]
- See how the dean begins to break; Poor gentleman! he droops apace. --Swift. [1913 Webster]
- 7. To be crushed, or overwhelmed with sorrow or grief; as, my heart is breaking. [1913 Webster]
- 8. To fall in business; to become bankrupt. [1913 Webster]
- He that puts all upon adventures doth oftentimes break, and come to poverty. --Bacn. [1913 Webster]
- 9. To make an abrupt or sudden change; to change the gait; as, to break into a run or gallop. [1913 Webster]
- 10. To fail in musical quality; as, a singer's voice breaks when it is strained beyond its compass and a tone or note is not completed, but degenerates into an unmusical sound instead. Also, to change in tone, as a boy's voice at puberty. [1913 Webster]
- 11. To fall out; to terminate friendship. [1913 Webster]
- To break upon the score of danger or expense is to be mean and narrow-spirited. --Collier. [1913 Webster]
- Note: With prepositions or adverbs: [1913 Webster]
- To break away, to disengage one's self abruptly; to come or go away against resistance. [1913 Webster]
- Fear me not, man; I will not break away. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- To break down. (a) To come down by breaking; as, the coach broke down. (b) To fail in any undertaking; to halt before successful completion; as, the negotiations broke down due to irreconcilable demands. (c) To cease functioning or to malfunction; as, the car broke down in the middle of the highway. [1913 Webster +PJC]
- He had broken down almost at the outset. --Thackeray. [1913 Webster]
- To break forth, to issue; to come out suddenly, as sound, light, etc. "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning." --Isa. lviii. 8; [1913 Webster]
- Note: often with into in expressing or giving vent to one's feelings. "Break forth into singing, ye mountains." --Isa. xliv. 23. [1913 Webster]
- To break from, to go away from abruptly. [1913 Webster]
- This radiant from the circling crowd he broke. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
- To break into, to enter by breaking; as, to break into a house.
- To break in upon, to enter or approach violently or unexpectedly. "This, this is he; softly awhile; let us not break in upon him." --Milton.
- To break loose. (a) To extricate one's self forcibly. "Who would not, finding way, break loose from hell?" --Milton. (b) To cast off restraint, as of morals or propriety.
- To break off. (a) To become separated by rupture, or with suddenness and violence. (b) To desist or cease suddenly. "Nay, forward, old man; do not break off so." --Shak.
- To break off from, to desist from; to abandon, as a habit.
- To break out. (a) To burst forth; to escape from restraint; to appear suddenly, as a fire or an epidemic. "For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and stream in the desert." --Isa. xxxv. 6 (b) To show itself in cutaneous eruptions; -- said of a disease. (c) To have a rash or eruption on the akin; -- said of a patient.
- To break over, to overflow; to go beyond limits.
- To break up. (a) To become separated into parts or fragments; as, the ice break up in the rivers; the wreck will break up in the next storm. (b) To disperse. "The company breaks up." --I. Watts.
- To break upon, to discover itself suddenly to; to dawn upon.
- To break with. (a) To fall out; to sever one's relations with; to part friendship. "It can not be the Volsces dare break with us." --Shak. "If she did not intend to marry Clive, she should have broken with him altogether." --Thackeray. (b) To come to an explanation; to enter into conference; to speak. [Obs.] "I will break with her and with her father." --Shak. [1913 Webster]