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Breakdown vs Resolve - What's the difference?

breakdown | resolve |

As a noun breakdown

is a failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed.

As a verb resolve is

(resolver).

breakdown

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A failure, particularly mechanical; something that has failed
    • We saw a breakdown by the side of the road.
  • A physical collapse or lapse of mental stability
    • After so much stress, he suffered a breakdown and simply gave up.
  • Listing, division or categorization in great detail
    • ''Looking at the breakdown of the budget, I see a few items we could cut.
  • (chemistry) Breaking of chemical bonds within a compound to produce simpler compounds or elements.
  • A musical technique, by where the music is stripped down, becoming simpler, and can vary in heaviness depending on the genre.
  • * 1992 , En Vogue, My Lovin' (You're Never Gonna Get It) (song)
    • And now it's time for a breakdown !
  • (sports) A loss of organization (of the parts of a system).
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 18 , author=Ben Dirs , title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Georgia, ranked 16th in the world, dominated the breakdown before half-time and forced England into a host of infringements, but fly-half Merab Kvirikashvili missed three penalties.}}
  • (US, dated) A noisy, rapid, shuffling dance engaged in competitively by a number of persons or pairs in succession, as among the blacks of the southern United States.
  • (US, dated) Any crude, noisy dance performed by shuffling the feet, usually by one person at a time.
  • * (rfdate) New Eng. Tales
    • Don't clear out when the quadrilles are over, for we are going to have a breakdown to wind up with.
  • (US) Any rapid bluegrass dance tune, especially featuring a five-string banjo.
    • Foggy Mountain 'Breakdown'
  • * 1893 , (Mark Twain) "The Californian's Tale", in (1906)
    • Towards nine the three miners said that as they had brought their instruments they might as well tune up, for the boys and girls would soon be arriving now, and hungry for a good old fashioned breakdown . A fiddle, a banjo, and a clarinet - these were the instruments.
  • *
  • *
  • * {{quote-book, ???, title=Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses, page=102,
    • books.google.com/books?isbn=1592403778, author=Stephen Davis, year=2008, passage=Izzy lays down some big chords while Slash plays the song's banjo breakdown of a theme.}}
  • *
  • *

    • Synonyms

    * (musical technique) degradation

    Derived terms

    * breakdown lorry / breakdown truck * breakdown point * nervous breakdown

    See also

    * break it down

    resolve

    English

    Verb

    (resolv)
  • To find a solution to (a problem).
  • To reduce to simple or intelligible notions; to make clear or certain; to unravel; to explain.
    • to resolve a riddle
  • * Shakespeare
    • Resolve my doubt.
  • To solve again.
  • To make a firm decision to do something.
  • * '>citation
  • To determine or decide in purpose; to make ready in mind; to fix; to settle.
    • He was resolved by an unexpected event.
  • To come to an agreement or make peace; patch up relationship, settle differences, bury the hatchet.
  • (transitive, intransitive, reflexive) To break down into constituent parts; to decompose; to disintegrate; to return to a simpler constitution or a primeval state.
  • * Shakespeare
    • O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!
  • * Dryden
    • Ye immortal souls, who once were men, / And now resolved to elements again.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Fenella Saunders, magazine=(American Scientist)
    • , title= Tiny Lenses See the Big Picture , passage=The single-imaging optic of the mammalian eye offers some distinct visual advantages. Such lenses can take in photons from a wide range of angles, increasing light sensitivity. They also have high spatial resolution, resolving incoming images in minute detail.}}
  • To cause to perceive or understand; to acquaint; to inform; to convince; to assure; to make certain.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Resolve me, Reason, which of these is worse, / Want with a full, or with an empty purse?
  • * Sir Walter Raleigh
    • In health, good air, pleasure, riches, I am resolved it can not be equalled by any region.
  • * Milton
    • We must be resolved how the law can be pure and perspicuous, and yet throw a polluted skirt over these Eleusinian mysteries.
  • (music) To cause a chord to go from dissonance to consonance.
  • (computing) To find the IP address of a hostname, or the entity referred to by a symbol in source code; to look up.
  • (rare) To melt; to dissolve; to liquefy or soften (a solid).
  • (rare, intransitive, reflexive) To melt; to dissolve; to become liquid.
  • * Arbuthnot
    • When the blood stagnates in any part, it first coagulates, then resolves , and turns alkaline.
  • (obsolete) To liquefy (a gas or vapour).
  • (medicine, dated) To disperse or scatter; to discuss, as an inflammation or a tumour.
  • (obsolete) To relax; to lay at ease.
    • (Ben Jonson)

    Derived terms

    * resolvable * resolver

    Related terms

    * solve * resolute * resolution

    References

    *

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Determination, will power.
    • ''It took all my resolve to go through with it.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Saj Chowdhury , title=Wolverhampton 1 - 2 Newcastle , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Alan Pardew's current squad has been put together with a relatively low budget but the resolve and unity within the team is priceless.}}

    Synonyms

    * fortitude, inner strength, resoluteness, sticktoitiveness, tenacity