v.

1. to cause to separate and go in different directions;
   disperse, dissipate, dispel, scatter
   
   • She waved her hand and scattered the crowds
2. discontinue an association or relation; go different ways;
   separate, part, split up, split, break
   
   • The business partners broke over a tax question
   • The couple separated after 25 years of marriage
   • My friend and I split up
3. come apart
   
   • the group broke up
4. break violently or noisily; smash;;
   crash, break apart
5. make a break in;
   interrupt, disrupt, cut off
   
   • We interrupt the program for the following messages
6. cause to go into a solution;
   dissolve, resolve
   
   • The recipe says that we should dissolve a cup of sugar in two cups of water
7. suffer a nervous breakdown;
   crack up, crack, crock up, collapse
8. take apart into its constituent pieces;
   disassemble, dismantle, take apart, break apart
9. destroy the completeness of a set of related items;
   break
   
   • The book dealer would not break the set
10. set or keep apart;
    sever
    
    • sever a relationship
11. attack with or as if with a pickaxe of ice or rocky ground, for example;
    pick
    
    • Pick open the ice
12. release ice;
    calve
    
    • The icebergs and glaciers calve
13. close at the end of a session;
    adjourn, recess
    
    • The court adjourned
14. bring the association of to an end or cause to break up;
    dissolve
    
    • The decree officially dissolved the marriage
    • the judge dissolved the tobacco company
15. come to an end;
    dissolve
    
    • Their marriage dissolved
    • The tobacco monopoly broke up
16. break or cause to break into pieces;
    fragment, fragmentize, fragmentise
    
    • The plate fragmented
17. cause to separate;
    disperse, scatter
    
    • break up kidney stones
    • disperse particles
18. separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts;
    decompose, break down
19. laugh unrestrainedly;
    crack up