I. bro ‧ ken 1 /ˈbrəʊkən $ ˈbroʊ/ BrE AmE
the past participle of ↑ break
II. broken 2 BrE AmE adjective
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ break , ↑ outbreak , ↑ breakage ; adjective : ↑ breakable ≠ ↑ unbreakable , ↑ broken ≠ ↑ unbroken ; verb : ↑ break ]
1 . PIECE OF EQUIPMENT not working properly:
The CD player’s broken again.
Do you know how the phone got broken (=became broken) ?
2 . OBJECT in small pieces because it has been hit, dropped etc:
Mind the broken glass.
Wrap it up well so it doesn’t get broken (=become broken) in the mail.
3 . BONE cracked because you have had an accident:
a badly broken leg
Gibbs had an X-ray, which revealed no broken bones.
4 . NOT CONTINUOUS interrupted and not continuous:
a broken white line
a long noisy night of broken sleep
5 . PERSON extremely weak mentally or physically because you have suffered a lot:
He returned from the war a broken man.
6 . broken English/French etc if you speak in broken English, French etc, you speak slowly and make a lot of mistakes because you know only a little of the language
7 . broken home a family that no longer lives together because the parents have ↑ divorce d :
The majority of offenders do not come from broken homes.
8 . broken marriage a marriage that has ended because the husband and wife do not live together anymore
9 . a broken heart a feeling of extreme sadness, especially because someone you love has died or left you:
I reckon she died of a broken heart.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ broken something that is broken has become separated into pieces, for example by being hit or dropped:
The floor was covered in broken glass.
|
This suitcase is no good – the handle’s broken.
|
The birds had gotten into the cabin through a broken window.
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In the corner of the room were a broken chair and a rickety old desk.
▪ out of order [not before noun] if a machine, especially one used by the public, is out of order, it is not working for a temporary period:
Every phone I tried was out of order.
|
The toilets were all out of order.
▪ down [not before noun] if a computer system is down, it is not working:
The computer system was down all afternoon, so we went home.
| go down (=stop working) :
The network went down at 11:00 and we lost the whole morning’s work.
▪ on the blink ( also on the fritz American English ) [not before noun] informal if a piece of electrical equipment is on the blink, it sometimes works and sometimes does not:
My TV’s on the blink again.
| go on the blink/fritz :
The car’s air conditioning went on the fritz just as we reached Dallas.
▪ there’s something wrong with something used when saying that a car, machine etc does not work properly and you do not know why:
There’s something wrong with my car; I think it might be the battery.
|
There was something wrong with the photocopier, so we called in the service company.
| have something wrong with it :
If the VCR has something wrong with it, take it back to the store.
▪ something has had it informal used when saying that a car, machine etc is completely broken and cannot be repaired:
I’m afraid the bike’s had it.