v.1. To cause something to collapse, especially by hitting it: The firefighters broke down the door of the burning house. The bulldozer pushed at the old wall and broke it down.
2. To collapse, especially as a result of force or pressure; give way: The door finally broke down after I kept hitting it with a club.
3. To cause someone to stop resisting, especially by force or pressure: The police will break you down and make you talk.
4. To stop resisting; accede: My friends kept pleading with me to go to the beach, so I finally broke down and went along with them.
5. To destroy or remove something, especially something viewed as a problem: This political party hopes to break down the barriers between social classes. Let's identify the obstacles and break them down.
6. To stop functioning: The elevator broke down, so please use the stairs.
7. To be a passenger in a vehicle that stops functioning: We're late because we broke down just outside the city.
8. To fail despite effort; come to a stop: The negotiations between the warring nations broke down, and the fighting continued.
9. To suffer an emotional or mental collapse: The stress of my new job was so high that I eventually broke down and couldn't go to work for days.
10. To separate something into parts; take something apart: When the carnival was over, we broke down all the tents. The workers broke down the equipment and put it into storage.
11. To examine or explain something by looking at its parts; analyze something: Break down your story into its main themes and write each part separately. This problem looks very difficult, but if we break it down, it becomes easy to solve.
12. To be divisible into smaller parts: The population of the city breaks down into three main groups: the poor, the rich, and the middle class.