break down

Verb

• collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack

• separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts

• cause to fall or collapse

• fall apart
  • the building crumbled after the explosion
    
  • Negotiations broke down
    

• stop operating or functioning
  • The engine finally went
    
  • The car died on the road
    
  • The bus we travelled in broke down on the way to town
    
  • The coffee maker broke
    
  • The engine failed on the way to town
    
  • her eyesight went after the accident
    

• lose control of one's emotions
  • When she heard that she had not passed the exam, she lost it completely
    
  • When her baby died, she snapped
    

• make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features
  • analyze a specimen
    
  • analyze a sentence
    
  • analyze a chemical compound
    

• make ineffective
  • Martin Luther King tried to break down racial discrimination
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  collapse , decompose , break up , crumble , crumple , tumble , fail , go bad , give way , die , give out , conk out , go , break , lose it , snap , analyze , analyse , dissect , take apart , crush
• Antonyms: 
  synthesize , synthesise