Definition of "breakaway" []

• Designed to break, bend, or fall apart easily upon impact, especially to create an illusion, as with a theater prop, or for safety, as with a highway sign or barrier. (adjective)
• Severing or having severed alliance with another entity, policy, or attitude: a group of breakaway political reformers. (adjective)
• One that breaks away. (noun)
• The act of breaking away, especially: (noun)
• An offensive play in a team sport such as ice hockey in which a player with the ball or puck advances ahead of the defenders toward the goal. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "“But because yours is the—” The word breakaway occurred to him, but he discarded it. “—newer nation, that would suggest that any uniting of the two would favor Tal’Aura’s government.”"
• "Keith Yandle's pass sprung Jovanovski for a breakaway from the Red Wings 'blue line and he beat Osgood between the pads."
• "` ` To get my first goal on a breakaway is pretty special, '' Hensick said."