Definition of "break up" [break up]

• To break or separate into pieces; to disintegrate or come apart. (verb)
• To end a relationship. (verb)
• To dissolve; to part. (verb)
• Of a school, to close for the holidays at the end of term. (verb)
• Of a telephone conversation, to cease to be understandable because of a bad connection. (verb)

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• "Unfortunately, my parents have made me break up with him because my mother accidentally-on-purpose overheard me telling a friend on the phone about how F. and I had rented a hotel room on prom night a few weeks earlier."
• "Kissinger seized on isolated intelligence, believed by few others, and concluded that Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi despised by Nixon was determined to attack and break up West Pakistan."
• "Mr. President, I know what you want, I just dont see how its going to happen, Haass argued, noting that to guarantee Saddams ouster would go beyond the administrations domestic and international writ, break up the international coalition Bush had so painstakingly assembled, and require an indefinite occupation of Iraq."