give someone a break
"give-someone-a-break" is a 17-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“give someone a break” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 20
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To stop harassing or demanding from someone.
Corpus desk
Index EN-give-someone-a-break · give someone a break · English
give someone a break · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 20 letters
- VOW-9 9 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "G" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | give someone a break |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 20 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “give someone a break” in English
Rare enough to double-check
give someone a break is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.
No generated misspelling entries exist for give someone a break in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct English form is give someone a break, spelled G-I-V-E- -S-O-M-E-O-N-E- -A- -B-R-E-A-K.
Definition
- 1To stop harassing or demanding from someone.
- 2Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To allow someone a rest.
- 3Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: To provide someone with an opportunity for significant advancement..
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how give someone a break appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
“Oh, give me a break, sport. You want to pick my brain but you're not going ^([sic]) give me anything in return? What's up with that?”
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.