broken

From Middle English broken, from Old English brocen, ġebrocen, from Proto-Germanic *brukanaz, past participle of Proto-Germanic *brekaną (“to break”). Cognate with Dutch gebroken (“broken”), German Low German broken (“broken”), German gebrochen (“broken”).

Morphologically broke +‎ -n.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈbɹoʊ.kɪn/, /ˈbɹoʊ.kən/

• Audio (US)

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• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: brōk'ən, IPA^(key): /ˈbɹəʊ.kən/
• Rhymes: -əʊkən

broken

1. past participle of break

broken (comparative more broken, superlative most broken)

A broken mug.

1. Fragmented; in separate pieces.
   • 2022 September 15, 2:33 from the start, in President Zelensky visits frontline as Ukraine reclaims more territory - BBC News‎, BBC News, archived from the original on 15 September 2022:

     Local people say there were Russian and Chechen forces here. […] Over here on the wall, one interesting detail- a single word, which someone has written in broken English: "Sori".

   1. (of a bone or body part) Fractured; having the bone in pieces.

      My arm is broken!

      the ground was littered with broken bones

      One recent morning the team had to replace a broken weather research station.

   2. (of skin) Split or ruptured.

      A dog bit my leg and now the skin is broken.

   3. (of a line) Dashed; made up of short lines with small gaps between each one and the next.
   4. (of sleep) Interrupted; not continuous.
      • 1906 May–October, Jack London, White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC:

        Then the circle would lie down again, and here and there a wolf would resume its broken nap.

   5. (meteorology, of the sky) Five-eighths to seven-eighths obscured by clouds; incompletely covered by clouds.

      Tomorrow: broken skies.

   6. (of a melody) Having periods of silence scattered throughout; not regularly continuous.
      • 1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, London: Penguin Books, published 1994, page 9:

        A cuckoo sat on a gate-post singing his broken June tune[.]

2. (of a promise, etc) Breached; violated; not kept.

   broken promises of neutrality

   broken vows

   the broken covenant

3. Non-functional; not functioning properly.

   I think my doorbell is broken.

   1. (of an electronic connection) Disconnected, no longer open or carrying traffic.
   2. (software, informal) Badly designed or implemented.

      This is the most broken application I've seen in a long time.

   3. (of language) Grammatically non-standard, especially as a result of being produced by a non-native speaker.
      • 1925 July – 1926 May, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “(please specify the chapter number)”, in The Land of Mist (eBook no. 0601351h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, published April 2019:

        His conversation was in French with Mailey and Roxton, who both spoke the language well, but he had to fall back upon broken English with Malone, who could only utter still more broken French in reply.

      • 1979, “Broken English”, performed by Marianne Faithfull:

        Don't say it in Russian / Don't say it in German / Say it in broken English

   4. (colloquial, US, of a situation) Not having gone in the way intended; saddening.

      Oh man! That is just broken!

4. (of a person) Completely defeated and dispirited; shattered; destroyed.

   The bankruptcy and divorce, together with the death of his son, left him completely broken.

   • 2006, “Welcome to the Black Parade”, in The Black Parade, performed by My Chemical Romance:

     He said, "Son, when you grow up / Would you be the savior of the broken / The beaten, and the damned?"

   • 2011, Dia Frampton (lyrics and music), “The Broken Ones”, in Red‎, performed by Dia Frampton:

     And oh, maybe I see a part of me in them / The missing piece, always trying to fit in / The shattered heart, hungry for a home / No, you're not alone / I love the broken ones / I love the broken ones

5. Having no money; bankrupt, broke.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

6. (of land) Uneven.
   • 2005, Will Cook, Until Darkness Disappears, page 54:

     All that day they rode into broken land. The prairie with its grass and rolling hills was behind them, and they entered a sparse, dry, rocky country, full of draws and short cañons and ominous buttresses.

7. (sports, gaming, of a tactic or option) Overpowered; overly powerful; giving a player too much power.

• (fragmented—bone, objects et al): burst, split; see also Thesaurus:broken
• (fragmented—line, sleep et al): intermittent, spasmodic; see also Thesaurus:discontinuous
• (not kept): violated
• (non-functional): borked, malfunctioning; see also Thesaurus:out of order
• (completely defeated): rekt
• (having no money): destitute, skint; see also Thesaurus:impoverished
• (uneven land):
• (overpowered): OP, unbalanced

• heartbroken
• housebroken
• jailbroken

• “broken”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Borken, bonker, borken