Talk:break the back of

RFV discussion: June 2023–July 2024
Rfv-sense: "To overburden (a person)"

We have break someone's back. I don't think I have ever heard anything like "it broke the back of John.", whereas "It broke John's back" seems natural. DCDuring (talk) 23:50, 28 June 2023 (UTC)

cited Kiwima (talk) 15:47, 31 January 2024 (UTC)


 * We now have sense 2,  and  which all look to be talking about the same thing. Is there any opportunity for merging these somehow? This, that and the other (talk) 02:53, 5 June 2024 (UTC)
 * We can make two of them alt forms of the third. Offhand, I would nominate this one ("break the back of") as the main lemma, because it is the most general. The other two are really the same meaning, but applied to a person or oneself. I have therefore updated and . Kiwima (talk) 01:27, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

RFV-passed Kiwima (talk) 18:22, 2 July 2024 (UTC)