Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who or that which breaks anything, as a machine to crush ores, stones, and other hard substances.
  • noun A violator or transgressor: as, a breaker of the law.
  • noun A wave broken into foam against the shore, a sand-bank, or a rock near the surface: generally in the plural.
  • noun [In this sense perhaps a corruption of Sp.barrica, a keg.] A small water-cask used in boats to supply the crew with water and for ballast.
  • noun A trainer, as of horses of dogs.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who, or that which, breaks.
  • noun Specifically: A machine for breaking rocks, or for breaking coal at the mines; also, the building in which such a machine is placed.
  • noun (Naut.) A small water cask.
  • noun A wave breaking into foam against the shore, or against a sand bank, or a rock or reef near the surface.
  • noun a quarry worker who splits off blocks of stone.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Something that breaks.
  • noun A machine for breaking rocks, or for breaking coal at the mines
  • noun The building in which such a machine is placed.
  • noun A small cask of liquid kept permanently in a ship's boat in case of shipwreck.
  • noun A person who specializes in breaking things.
  • noun A wave breaking into foam against the shore, or against a sand bank, or a rock or reef near the surface, considered a useful warning to ships of an underwater hazard
  • noun colloquial A breakdancer.
  • noun A user of CB radio.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun waves breaking on the shore
  • noun a device that trips like a switch and opens the circuit when overloaded
  • noun a quarry worker who splits off blocks of stone

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

break +‎ -er

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Examples

Comments

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  • In the rare books field, a dealer or other person who breaks up books to sell the plates individually (not always viewed favorably); also used to describe a book itself when its covers are in such bad condition that it must either be rebound or broken up.

    February 25, 2008

  • Before child labor laws boys,under age 12,worked inside "Coal Breakers" and were,thus,known as "breaker boys'. My father and three uncles were breaker boys in the anthracite fields of Pennsylvania.

    September 14, 2009