breakaway

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breakaway

/ˈbɹeɪkəweɪ/

Where it comes from

From break + away, a deverbal from break away.

adjective

not comparable Having broken away from a larger unit. The breakaway republic is slowly establishing order and civil society.
not comparable Capable of breaking off without damaging the larger structure. a breakaway wall
not comparable Occurring during or as a result of a breakaway (see Noun) 2016, Scott Feschuk, "Counting down the most annoying in video review, by sport," sportsnet.ca, 10 July, 2016, http://www.sportsnet.ca/baseball/mlb/counting-annoying-video-review-sport/ In a league starved for scoring, the challenge ensures that some super-sweet breakaway goals will be overturned be
not comparable Enjoying rapid popular success. The New York quintet call themselves Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, and their RCA debut LP is this season's breakaway disco act.

noun breakaways

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 dange
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.
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
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.
Australia A stampede of animals.
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 dodg
Australia An eroding steep slope on the edge of a plateau; an escarpment.
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.
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
A swing dance in which the leader occasionally swings the follower out into an open position.
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.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: weak, independent, separatist, breaking away, disengagement, separation, defector, renegade, separated, rebel, separate, discrete, dissenting, dissident, dissent, splinter

Translations

Every language

adj having broken away from a larger unit

Español	separado, separatista
中文	分裂的 fēnliè de
Français	dissident
Deutsch	abtrünnig, separatistisch
Русский	отколо́вшийся otkolóvšijsja, отдели́вшийся otdelívšijsja, самопровозглашённый samoprovozglašónnyj

noun act of breaking away from something

Deutsch	Lossagung, Absplitterung, Loslösung, Ausbrechen, Losmachung
Ελληνικά	απόσχιση apóschisi

noun in cycling

Español	escapado
Français	échappée
Deutsch	Ausbruch, Ausbruchsgruppe
Italiano	fuga

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Cite this

MLA

"breakaway." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/breakaway. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

breakaway. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/breakaway

Chicago

"breakaway." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/breakaway.

BibTeX

@misc{breakaway_2026,
  title = {breakaway},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/breakaway},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}