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View synonyms for break through

break through

verb

  1. intr to penetrate
  2. intr, adverb to achieve success, make a discovery, etc, esp after lengthy efforts
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. a significant development or discovery, esp in science
  2. the penetration of an enemy's defensive position or line in depth and strength
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Idioms and Phrases

Penetrate a barrier or obstruction, as in They broke through the wall to get into the vault , or It won't be long before we break through the code and map all human genes . Used literally for going through a physical barrier since about 1400, this phrase began to be used figuratively in the late 1500s.
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Example Sentences

The culture is flooded with talented creative types, most of whom struggle fruitlessly to break through.

“I was good enough to keep hanging around, but never good enough to break through to the majors,” he says.

Police squadrons had to form a “flying wedge” to break through the crowd to rescue blacks besieged in the park.

With the dekiltered surrealism Harold brought to that telling, he'd sometimes break through to what can only be called Art.

And yet if the selfie is the most idealized image of the self, then Cubitt has worked to break through that frozen representation.

Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through, and steal.

Anyhow, my line is fairly strong, so that if it is not over they will not break through here.

He had an impulse to break through things, to fling obstacles aside, to hurl down all that intervened; and yet he hesitated.

He realized how strong must be the sense of comradeship in Mr. Cornelius to break through his habits of tenacious secrecy.

They could break through the walls of their stables, and no ordinary fence could withstand them.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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