clean break
noun
: complete separation from something
When he left home, he made a clean break with the past.
Examples of clean break in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
But whatever is happening inside Chris’s head, the rest of the world doesn’t want to give him a clean break.
—
Scott Meslow, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2025
Ending Xi’s leverage will require a full, clean break between TikTok and ByteDance, severing partnerships between the app and its former parent.
—Emily Baker-White, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
Heading into the final season of a five-year, $100 million deal, there could be mutual interest in a clean break.
—Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Sep. 2025
Patrick Fuchs, the 37-year-old chairman of obscure and quaintly named Surface Transportation Board, has signalled what colleagues and industry players are interpreting as an openness to consolidation, or at least a clean break from the reflexive antipathy of his predecessor to deals.
—Rohan Goswami, semafor.com, 19 June 2025
This tends to keep damage localized as cracks spread little by little rather than one clean break.
—Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 26 May 2025
From Gary Gensler to Paul Atkins: A clean break at the SEC
Under Biden, then-SEC Chairman Gary Gensler led a broad enforcement campaign against the digital asset industry.
—Kaelan Deese, The Washington Examiner, 24 May 2025
Trump also reversed former President Biden’s 2022 crypto directive, marking a clean break for the crypto industry under the new administration.
—Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill, 29 Apr. 2025
However, while deleting a 23andMe account may seem like a clean break, genetic privacy experts caution that remnants of data may still exist.
—Anisha Sircar, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
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Scott Meslow, Vulture, 19 Sep. 2025
Ending Xi’s leverage will require a full, clean break between TikTok and ByteDance, severing partnerships between the app and its former parent.
—Emily Baker-White, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
Heading into the final season of a five-year, $100 million deal, there could be mutual interest in a clean break.
—Jackson Roberts, MSNBC Newsweek, 7 Sep. 2025
Patrick Fuchs, the 37-year-old chairman of obscure and quaintly named Surface Transportation Board, has signalled what colleagues and industry players are interpreting as an openness to consolidation, or at least a clean break from the reflexive antipathy of his predecessor to deals.
—Rohan Goswami, semafor.com, 19 June 2025
This tends to keep damage localized as cracks spread little by little rather than one clean break.
—Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 26 May 2025
From Gary Gensler to Paul Atkins: A clean break at the SEC
Under Biden, then-SEC Chairman Gary Gensler led a broad enforcement campaign against the digital asset industry.
—Kaelan Deese, The Washington Examiner, 24 May 2025
Trump also reversed former President Biden’s 2022 crypto directive, marking a clean break for the crypto industry under the new administration.
—Miranda Nazzaro, The Hill, 29 Apr. 2025
However, while deleting a 23andMe account may seem like a clean break, genetic privacy experts caution that remnants of data may still exist.
—Anisha Sircar, Forbes, 25 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Clean break.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/clean%20break. Accessed 1 Oct. 2025.
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