breakout

Deverbal from break out.

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

breakout (plural breakouts)

1. An escape from prison.
2. An escape from any restrictive or confining situation.
3. (aviation) The point at which visibility returns after passing through clouds.
4. An outbreak (sudden eruption of disease etc.).
   • 1988, Thomas Goodman, Stephanie Young, Smart Face, page 115:

     But for those of you who never had teenage acne or who had some teenage acne problems and outgrew them, it is a real shock to start having breakouts in the mid twenties to late thirties.

5. A breakdown of statistics; a detailed view of component parts.
6. A room in a hotel etc. that can be taken by a smaller group at a large conference.

(escape from prison):

• jailbreak
• prison break

breakout (not comparable)

1. Of a book, film, or other work: leading its author to sudden mainstream success.
   • 2009, Lisa Iannucci, Will Smith: A Biography, page 44:

     Then in 1991, Jada won her breakout role playing Lena James on NBC's A Different World.

2. (electronics, attributive) Splitting a signal into several signals.

   breakout box; breakout cable

• kabouter, outbrake, outbreak