Word family noun break outbreak breakage adjective breakable ≠ unbreakable broken ≠ unbroken verb break
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishoutbreakout‧break /ˈaʊtbreɪk/ ●●○ noun [countable] START TO HAPPEN, EXIST ETCif there is an outbreak of fighting or disease in an area, it suddenly starts to happen a cholera outbreakoutbreak of outbreaks of fighting the outbreak of World War II → break out at break1Examples from the Corpus
outbreak• By 1946 the worst epidemic of poliomyelitis since the 1916 outbreak gripped the United States.• Doctors are very concerned about an outbreak of tuberculosis in an East London School.• There's been an outbreak of food poisoning at the hotel.• Then there was a spread of relief, an outbreak of joy, a contagion of exuberance.• Thousands of people died as the result of this latest cholera outbreak.• In the years after the first outbreak in the United States, polio was given little attention.• Henry held Richard responsible for this further outbreak, which was in flagrant defiance of his recent ban.• In the last great outbreak in 1911,32,000 infants died of diarrhoea and the infant mortality rate climbed to 130.• In fact, Washington gave the military in Hawaii plenty of warning about the imminent outbreak of hostilities.• The relatively recent outbreak of street violence and protests largely reflect the frustration of young people unable to find jobs.• The system started to operate in late 1914, a few months after the outbreak of war in Europe.• This preparatory work was practically complete at the outbreak of war and authority was given a few days before for completion.outbreak of• the outbreak of World War II 