Breaking

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Breaking

To use physical force to separate or damage a solid object.

When used in criminal statutes as an element of Burglary or housebreaking, to forcibly remove any part of a house that protects it from unauthorized entry such as locks, latches, windows, or doors, to gain access to the house with the intent to commit a crime; to use force or violence in escaping from a house after a felony has been committed or attempted therein.

The slightest physical force—for example, lifting a latch, releasing a bolt, or opening an unlocked door or window—is enough to constitute breaking.

BREAKING. Parting or dividing by force and violence a solid substance, or piercing, penetrating, or bursting through the same.
     2. In cases of burglary and house-breaking, the removal, of any part of the house, or of the fastenings provided to secure it, with violence and a felonious intent, is called a breaking.
     3. The breaking is actual, as in the above case; or constructive, as when the burglar or house-breaker gains an entry by fraud, conspiracy or threats. 2 Russ. on Cr. 2; 2 Chit. Cr. Law, 1092; 1 Hale, P. C. 553; Alis. Prin. 282, 291. In England it has been decided that if the sash of a window be partly open, but not sufficiently so to admit a person, the raising of it so as to admit a person is not a breaking of the house. 1 Moody, Cr. Cas. 178. No reasons are assigned. It is difficult to conceive, if this case be law, what further opening will amount to a breaking. But see 1 Moody, Cr. Cas. 327, 377; and Burglary.

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References in classic literature ?
O my brethren, when I enjoined you to break up the good, and the tables of the good, then only did I embark man on his high seas.
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For all my prowess I cannot break through the wall and open a way to the ships single-handed.
The Lycians could not break through the wall and force their way to the ships, nor could the Danaans drive the Lycians from the wall now that they had once reached it.
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You want to brace up, and take hold of some- thing." Then I shouted to the people: "Behold, in another minute the spell will be broken, or no mortal can break it.
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(in this world here where I find myself, and even at the little Break of Day) that there are such people.
The landlady's lively speech was received with greater favour at the Break of Day, than it would have elicited from certain amiable whitewashers of the class she so unreasonably objected to, nearer Great Britain.
If your philosophical philanthropy,' said the landlady, putting down her work, and rising to take the stranger's soup from her husband, who appeared with it at a side door, 'puts anybody at the mercy of such people by holding terms with them at all, in words or deeds, or both, take it away from the Break of Day, for it isn't worth a sou.'
The company might have had other engagements, or they might have felt their inferiority, but in any case they dispersed by degrees, and not being replaced by other company, left their new patron in possession of the Break of Day.
The landlady of the Break of Day looked at him again, and felt almost confirmed in her last decision.
This the landlady of the Break of Day chirpingly explained, calling between whiles, 'Hola, my husband!' out at the side door.
When he started up, the Godfather Break of Day was peeping at its namesake.
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The division was the only major European league not to observe a winter break, but, following consultation between the FA and the Premier League, it was agreed last June that a break will be brought in for the up-coming campaign.
Premier League set for first winter break

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