break down

1. Make ineffective (synset 201106247)
   "Martin Luther King tried to break down racial discrimination"
   is a type of: alter, change, modify - cause to change; make different; cause a transformation
   same as: crush
2. Make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of;
   Break down into components or essential features (synset 200645135)
   "analyze a specimen"; "analyze a sentence"; "analyze a chemical compound"
   subtypes:

   • parse - analyze syntactically by assigning a constituent structure to (a sentence)
   • botanise, botanize - collect and study plants
   same as: analyse, analyze, dissect, take apart
3. Lose control of one's emotions (synset 201788114)
   "When she heard that she had not passed the exam, she lost it completely"; "When her baby died, she snapped"
   is a type of: act, behave, do - behave in a certain manner; show a certain behavior; conduct or comport oneself
   subtypes:

   • dissolve - lose control emotionally
   • die - be brought to or as if to the point of death by an intense emotion such as embarrassment, amusement, or shame
   • fall apart, go to pieces - lose one's emotional or mental composure
   same as: lose it, snap
4. Stop operating or functioning (synset 200435327)
   "The engine finally went"; "The car died on the road"; "The bus we travelled in broke down on the way to town"; "The coffee maker broke"; "The engine failed on the way to town"; "her eyesight went after the accident"
   is a type of: change - undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature
   subtypes:

   • crash, go down - stop operating
   • blow, blow out, burn out - melt, break, or become otherwise unusable
   • misfire - fail to fire or detonate
   • malfunction, misfunction - fail to function or function improperly
   same as: break, conk out, die, fail, give out, give way, go, go bad
   verb group:

   • break - render inoperable or ineffective
   • buy the farm, cash in one's chips, choke, conk, croak, decease, die, drop dead, exit, expire, give-up the ghost, go, kick the bucket, pass, pass away, perish, pop off, snuff it - pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life
5. Fall apart (synset 202045722)
   "the building crumbled after the explosion"; "Negotiations broke down"
   is a type of: change integrity - change in physical make-up
   same as: collapse, crumble, crumple, tumble
6. Cause to fall or collapse (synset 201372791)
   causes: break down, collapse, crumble, crumple, tumble - fall apart
   is a type of: break, bust - ruin completely
7. Separate (substances) into constituent elements or parts (synset 200209582)
   referred to in: chemical science, chemistry - the science of matter; the branch of the natural sciences dealing with the composition of substances and their properties and reactions
   is a type of: separate - divide into components or constituents
   subtypes:

   • digest - soften or disintegrate by means of chemical action, heat, or moisture
   • dissociate - to undergo a reversible or temporary breakdown of a molecule into simpler molecules or atoms
   • crack - reduce (petroleum) to a simpler compound by cracking
   same as: break up, decompose
8. Collapse due to fatigue, an illness, or a sudden attack (synset 200030640)
   is a type of: get, have, suffer, sustain - undergo (as of injuries and illnesses)
   subtypes:

   • drop like flies - rapidly collapse, die, or drop out in large numbers
   • fall over, go over - fall forward and down
   same as: collapse

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