breek

Breek is a Dutch word that appears most often as a verb form of breken, meaning to break or fracture. In everyday Dutch, breek is the second-person singular present tense (you break) and the imperative form (break!). It is used in statements such as “Breek het glas” and in idiomatic expressions like “het ijs breken” (to break the ice).

Etymology and cognates: The verb breken comes from Old Dutch and is related to the German brechen and English break, sharing a common West Germanic root associated with breaking or fragmenting. The form breek reflects regular Dutch conjugation patterns for the stem brek- and is part of a broader verb family used to denote rupture or separation.

Other uses and notes: In Dutch morphology, breek can function as a stem in compounds related to breaking or fracture, such as breekpunt (breaking point) and breekijzer (crowbar), where the meaning emerges from the derived nouns rather than the bare verb. In other West Germanic languages such as Frisian and Afrikaans, similar forms exist with the same general sense of break or fracture, though usage and grammar differ between languages.

See also: breken; break; breaking point.