Noun

(en noun)

(military) An advance through and past enemy lines.

Any major progress; such as a great innovation or discovery that overcomes a significant obstacle.

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(sports) The penetration of the opposition defence

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=September 29 , author=Jon Smith , title=Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=But with the lively Dos Santos pulling the strings behind strikers Pavlyuchenko and Defoe, Spurs controlled the first half without finding the breakthrough their dominance deserved.}}

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.

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* {{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.}}

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