break through

British  

verb

1. (intr) to penetrate

2. (intr, adverb) to achieve success, make a discovery, etc, esp after lengthy efforts

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noun

1. a significant development or discovery, esp in science

2. the penetration of an enemy's defensive position or line in depth and strength

break through Idioms  

1. Penetrate a barrier or obstruction, as in They broke through the wall to get into the vault, or It won't be long before we break through the code and map all human genes. Used literally for going through a physical barrier since about 1400, this phrase began to be used figuratively in the late 1500s.

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Example Sentences

Strong waves broke through another part of the lake’s wall and about half the lake’s water gushed out, Sattar and his co-authors estimated in a research paper in the journal Science.

From The Wall Street Journal

If ever there was a tournament where it made sense for Woodland to break through, it was the Houston Open.

From The Wall Street Journal

"We have two main strategies to break through this limit," says Yoichi Sasaki, Associate Professor at Kyushu University's Faculty of Engineering.

From Science Daily

A series of lawsuits has now broken through the public-relations and lobbying front to bring this reality home.

From MarketWatch

Last season, the upstart Mariners finally broke through after years of promise, winning 90 games and claiming their first division crown since 2001.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• arrive
• come
• come out
• crop up
• develop
• emerge
• materialize
• occur
• pop up
• present
• show
• show up
• surface
• turn out
• turn up