Thesaurus results for BROKE OUT

broke out

verb

past tense of break out

as in erupted

to develop suddenly and violently in the wake of news reports of deaths from the flu, panic broke out, and there was a mad rush for flu shots

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of broke out Last month, OpenAI agents broke out of a training environment and hacked open-source software developer platform Hugging Face, raising concerns over the rapid evolution of powerful AI and cybersecurity tools. — Samantha Subin, CNBC, 3 Aug. 2026 Vorobyov said several fires broke out in an industrial zone in the Moscow region following a drone attack, damaging an electrical substation and an administrative building. — Kosta Gak, CNN Money, 3 Aug. 2026 The wildfires broke out over the weekend across the Spokane area, fueled by very strong winds combined with extremely dry conditions. — Melissa Griffin, ABC News, 3 Aug. 2026 My face broke out in butterfly rashes so often my camera roll turned into a swollen selfie archive. — Samantha Agate, Miami Herald, 3 Aug. 2026 Chaos broke out in the fourth inning of Sunday night's Liga Mexicana de Béisbol, aka Mexican Baseball League, game between the Toros de Tijuana and the Acereros de Monclova. — Sean Joseph Outkick, FOXNews.com, 3 Aug. 2026 Justus had been campaigning near the election offices when the argument broke out. — Nathan Pilling july 22, Kansas City Star, 22 July 2026 This is what happened to BTO (and many other CEFs) when the Iran conflict broke out. — Michael Foster, Forbes.com, 21 July 2026 So when another round of violence broke out in May, 2021, Biden chose to publicly express only support for Israel’s response. — David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker, 20 July 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for broke out

Verb

Earlier Monday, some residents returned to find their homes leveled by wildfires that erupted across a parched landscape over the weekend, covering yards in charred debris.

— ABC News, ABC News, 4 Aug. 2026
Sleep was beginning to finally visit the insomniacs and drunkards of T—in central Manila when a commotion louder than the usual domestic squabbles erupted from the room above Mang Calixto’s bakery.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 3 Aug. 2026

Definition of erupted

Verb

That memecoin briefly exploded in value – and then crashed in an epic selloff that left nearly a million investors facing losses.

— Matt Egan, CNN Money, 4 Aug. 2026
When generative AI exploded, many of the legacy giants didn't rebuild their architecture to support real-time data pipelines or autonomous agents.

— Sridhar Yerramreddy, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2026