Break up

break up & breaks up breaking up broke up broken up

1. break... up p.v. When you break up a fight, you stop the fight.

Two students were fighting, and the teacher broke them up.

There was no way I could break up the fight between the two dogs.

2. break... up p.v. When a gathering of people separates, it breaks up. When the police tell people who are gathered together in a crowd to separate and leave the area, the police break the gathering up.

The meeting should break up around 3:00.

The police ordered the gang members to break it up.

The demonstration was broken up by riot police.

3. break...up (with) p.v. When two people end a romantic relationship, they break up. When you end a romantic relationship with another person, you break up with that person. When other people cause a couple to break up, they break the couple up.

I was sad to hear that Jim and Nancy had broken up.

It was Jim's secretary who broke them up.

breakup n. When two people end a romantic relationships breakup occurs. Nancy is very upset about the breakup.

4. break... up p.v. When something breaks into smaller pieces, it breaks up. When you break something into smaller pieces, you break it up.

The meteor broke up when it entered Earth's atmosphere.

Sally broke the cookie up before giving it to her baby.

breakup n. When something breaks into smaller pieces, a breakup takes place. The breakup of AT&T created several smaller telephone companies.

5. break... up p.v. When something breaks up the day or some other period of time, it interrupts that time and makes it less boring.

The bank guard likes to chat with the tellers once in a while to break up the day.

My day was broken up by a going-away party for one of my coworkers.

Infinitive
	present tense	-ing form	past tense	past participle
call back
	call back & calls back	calling back	called backed	called back

 

1. call...back p.v. When you call someone back, you call a person on the telephone who has called you earlier.

Janice left a message asking me to call her back.

Bob was called back by the salesman.

2. call... back p.v. When you leave a place or walk away from a person and are then asked to return, you are called back.

/ remembered something after she walked away, and I called her back.

Mike handed his letter of resignation to his boss, but he was called back after he left the office.