breakup

• break up, break-up

Deverbal from break up.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹeɪk.ʌp/

breakup (plural breakups)

1. The act of breaking up; disintegration or division.
   • 2000 August 23, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.12 Wreckage Recovery and Documentation Information”, in Aircraft Accident Report: In-flight Breakup Over the Atlantic Ocean, Trans World Airlines Flight 800, Boeing 747-131, N93119, Near East Moriches, New York, July 17, 1996‎, archived from the original on 11 July 2022, page 65:

     Several factors led to speculation that the accident might have been caused by a bomb or missile strike, including heightened safety and security concerns because of the 1996 Olympics then being held in the United States, the fact that TWA flight 800 was an international flight, and the sudden and catastrophic nature of the in-flight breakup.

2. The termination of a friendship or a romantic relationship.
   • 2018 November 21, Jocelyn Samara D., Rain (webcomic), Comic 1101 - Rose:

     "Eventually, I just pieced it together, figuring your butting heads could probably be explained by a break up. Years of anime shipping trained me for this."

3. A loss of emotional control; a breakdown.
4. (Alaska and northern Canada, seasons, time) The time of year during which winter ice covering bodies of water disintegrates; more generally, spring.

• (act of breaking up): rupture, split, split-up
• (termination of a friendship or a romantic relationship): falling out

• (antonym(s) of “seasons”): freeze-up

• upbreak