Paper or board that is discarded and repulped during the manufacturing process.
"The recycling plant sorted out the bales of broken paper to be repulped for new cardboard production."
In plain English: Broke is slang for having no money at all.
"When I ran out of cash, my friend lent me some broke to help me get through the day."
Usage: Use "broke" only when referring to paper scraps or offcuts discarded during manufacturing; it is not used colloquially to mean having no money. In everyday conversation, people should use the adjective "broke" instead of treating it as a noun for lack of funds.
simple past tense of break
"The shop owner hired me to break his merchandise, handling all the sales and customer negotiations while he stayed behind the counter."
To act as a broker; to transact business for another.
In plain English: To break means to separate into pieces or cause something to split apart.
"I broke my leg while playing soccer yesterday."
Usage: Do not use "broke" as a verb to mean acting as a middleman or facilitating a transaction; that usage is archaic and rarely appears in modern speech. Instead, reserve the term for its current everyday meaning of having no money or being financially ruined.
Financially ruined, bankrupt.
"The family that had been broke for generations finally bought a mansion when their son struck it rich after inventing a new battery technology."
Broke off, rich, wealthy
In plain English: Broke means having no money left to spend.
"My wallet is broke because I spent all my money on groceries."
Usage: When someone is broke, they have no money and are unable to pay their bills, which is the opposite of being rich or wealthy. Do not use this term to describe a person who has recently lost their wealth, as that specific meaning belongs to the phrase "broke off."
Broke is simply the past tense and past participle of the verb break. It has maintained its core meaning throughout its history without shifting to a new definition.