"Broke Definition"

And we went aboard and broke the oars and threw the sails into the water.

Sara awakened from her dream, started a little, and then broke into a laugh.

I found it, however, very slippery with the spray which broke over it.

She broke off small pieces and ate them slowly to make it last longer.

He was broke and friendless, and I was a millionaire and almost as friendless.

He broke off, climaxing his question with an abrupt swing of the sword.

She mended broken hearts where she could, but she broke none.

I stood for the law, and yet—I broke that gang, which the law could not touch.

At last morning broke, and with the first blush of dawn I got up.

Just look at this virtuous little volume which I was reading when you broke in upon me.

broke past tense and obsolete pp. of break (variant of broken); extension to "insolvent" is first recorded 1716 (broken, in this sense, is attested from 1590s). By coincidence, O.E. cognate broc meant, in addition to "that which breaks," "affliction, misery;" but that sense died out long before the current one began.