broken line

American  

noun

1. a discontinuous line or series of line segments, as a series of dashes, or a figure made up of line segments meeting at oblique angles.

2. a highway marking consisting of a series of disconnected line segments painted between lanes of a roadway, indicating that crossing from one to the other is permissible.

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Example Sentences

For a countertenor, music history is a broken line.

From New York Times • Sep. 21, 2018

The broken line along 15 Mile Road caused a football field-sized sinkhole on Christmas Eve, led to condemnation of three houses and threatened to dump raw sewage into thousands of basements through the broken pipe.

From Washington Times • Sep. 26, 2017

Or it can be used almost dry to make a broken line that scrapes along textured paper.

From The Guardian • Feb. 5, 2011

The other is a tidy broken line near the top of the canvas, hinting at a level of consciousness that won't be breached by the purposeful creature below.

From Seattle Times • Dec. 30, 2010

He splices a broken line, or pokes a bird’s nest off a boom, or elevates an antenna on struts.

From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr