breakout

See also: break out

English

Etymology

Deverbal from break out. The video game genre is named after Breakout, the first game of this kind, released in 1976 by Atari.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

breakout (countable and uncountable, plural breakouts)

1. An escape from prison.
2. An escape from any restrictive or confining situation.
3. (aviation) The point at which visibility returns after passing through clouds.
4. An outbreak (sudden eruption of disease etc.).
   • 1988, Thomas Goodman, Stephanie Young, Smart Face, page 115:

     But for those of you who never had teenage acne or who had some teenage acne problems and outgrew them, it is a real shock to start having breakouts in the mid twenties to late thirties.

5. A breakdown of statistics; a detailed view of component parts.
6. A room in a hotel etc. that can be taken by a smaller group at a large conference.
7. (uncountable, video games) A style of video game that involves moving a paddle to deflect a ball into a wall of bricks to eliminate them one by one.
   • 1986, Media Review, volume 10, page 97:

     […] a "breakout" game where a ball is bounced off a bar at the bottom of the screen up to a wall of bricks. Each time the ball strikes a brick it is eliminated and points are awarded.

   • 2011, Mark Guzdial, ‎Barbara Ericson, Problem Solving with Data Structures Using Java (page 355)

     […] a breakout game in Greenfoot […] In breakout the user hits a ball with a paddle into bricks […]

   • 2016, James R. Parker, Python: An Introduction to Programming:

     […] a breakout game clone on the left, with rectangular bricks.

   • 2018, Wee Hoe Tan, Design, Motivation, and Frameworks in Game-Based Learning, page 221:

     […] a breakout game which is based on a 1970's arcade game, where a player character moves a paddle on the lower part of the game screen in order to break bricks on the upper part of the game screen using a ball that may bounce back […]

Synonyms

(escape from prison):

• jailbreak
• prison break

Derived terms

• breakout board
• breakout character
• breakout force
• breakout group
• breakout room
• breakout session

Related terms

• outbreak

Translations

An escape from prison

• Finnish: pako vankilasta, vankilapako
• Italian: fuga (it) f, evasione (it) f
• Polish: ucieczka z więzienia f
• Portuguese: fuga (pt) f
• Romanian: evadare (ro) f, fugă (ro) f
• Russian: побе́г (ru) m (pobég)
• Spanish: evasión (es) f, fuga (es) f, escape (es) m
• Swedish: flykt (sv) c

An escape from any restrictive or confining situation

• Finnish: pako (fi)
• Italian: liberazione (it) f
• Polish: ucieczka (pl) f
• Portuguese: libertação (pt) f
• Spanish: evasión (es) f, escape (es) m, fuga (es) f
• Swedish: flykt (sv) c

An outbreak

• Finnish: syttyminen (fi), puhkeaminen (fi)
• Italian: scoppio (it) m, esplosione (it) f
• Polish: wybuch (pl) m
• Portuguese: explosão (pt) f
• Russian: вспы́шка (ru) f (vspýška)
• Swedish: flykt (sv) c

A breakdown of statistics

• Finnish: erittely (fi)
• Polish: zestawienie statystyk n
• Swedish: utbrytning (sv) c

Adjective

breakout (not comparable)

1. Of a book, film, or other work: leading its author to sudden mainstream success.
   • 2009, Lisa Iannucci, Will Smith: A Biography, page 44:

     Then in 1991, Jada won her breakout role playing Lena James on NBC's A Different World.

2. (electronics, attributive) Splitting a signal into several signals.

   breakout box; breakout cable

Anagrams

• kabouter, outbrake, outbreak