break down vs breakdown
Definitions
verb
- make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features
- collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack
- fall apart
- make ineffective
- separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts
Examples
Exponible propositions generally break down into elements that are called exponent propositions; they explain or expound what is going on in the exponible proposition.
Men are left idle when machines break down.
To begin with the surface is coherent – now and again she smiles sadly at the charm he manages to bestow on that foul-smelling tannery – but as she turns the pages she sees it start to break down.
Definitions
noun
- a cessation of normal operation
- a mental or physical breakdown
- the act of disrupting an established order so it fails to continue
- (biology) the process of decay caused by bacterial or fungal action
- an analysis into mutually exclusive categories
Examples
All the signs are today that one of the basic problems preventing people co-operating together for the common good is the breakdown of neighbourly society.
Both sides blamed each other for the breakdown of talks.
After a time teaching drama in borstals, prisons and community centres, he suffered two more breakdowns until one day, while sitting on a bus, his persistent angst, dread and fear of failure simply evaporated.
