past participle of break
"He finally fixed the broken vase that had fallen off the shelf yesterday."
In plain English: To break something means to cause it to snap, crack, or fall apart so it no longer works properly.
"The old vase broke when I dropped it on the floor."
Usage: Use "broken" primarily as an adjective to describe something that has been shattered or damaged, rather than as a standalone verb in modern English. When you need to express the action of breaking, use the base form "break" or the simple past "broke."
physically and forcibly separated into pieces or cracked or split
"a broken mirror"
"a broken tooth"
"a broken leg"
"his neck is broken"
not continuous in space, time, or sequence or varying abruptly
"broken lines of defense"
"a broken cable transmission"
"broken sleep"
"tear off the stub above the broken line"
"a broken note"
"broken sobs"
subdued or brought low in condition or status
"brought low"
"a broken man"
"his broken spirit"
thrown into a state of disarray or confusion
"troops fleeing in broken ranks"
"a confused mass of papers on the desk"
"the small disordered room"
"with everything so upset"
Fragmented, in separate pieces.
"The vase shattered into a thousand broken shards across the floor."
Fractured; having the bone in pieces.
"After falling off his bike, he had to go to the hospital because his arm was broken."
In plain English: Broken means something is damaged so badly that it no longer works properly.
"The glass window was broken after the storm."
Usage: Use "broken" to describe something that has been fractured into separate pieces or ceased to function properly due to damage. Avoid using it metaphorically unless you intend to convey a literal sense of structural failure or disarray.
Torres Strait Creole.
"The broken Torres Strait Creole he spoke had a mix of English and local island words that made it hard to understand for outsiders."
The word "broken" comes from Old English and originally meant something that had been split or shattered. It traveled into modern English as the past participle of the verb "to break," keeping its original sense of being fractured.