Talk:broken

I was considering adding this sense:


 * 1)  Not working because of a hyperlink whose target no longer exists.
 * 2) * 2006, John DiMarco, Web portfolio design and applications
 * If you move files outside of the application, you may have to replace broken images with the same images from the new location.

It might only apply to "image", though. It isn't the same sense as "broken link", because a broken image is caused by a broken link; the image itself is not broken per se. Equinox ◑ 11:32, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

broken
Sense 9 has the entirely vague quality of seeming wrong to me. I've searched for citations for it but have found nothing. It's entirely possible I'm not searching for the right things, though. It's indicated as being in the Merriam-Webster by one user but this doesn't necessarily mean it's attestable. I wonder if Merriam-Webster is simply being non-discerning with the sense "broken down", used in my experience as a past participle. E.g., The erring soldier was broken down to private for his insubordination. —Leftmostcat 15:37, 17 January 2009 (UTC)


 * I'm not familiar with it, or with the usage your example — though I have heard "busted down to private" — but borrowing your example, minus the "down", just searching for "broken to private", I find tons of durably archived hits. But I wonder if it's just the normal past participle of a sense of that we're missing, firstly because the uses I find seem eventive (things like "he had been broken to sergeant", meaning "X had demoted him to sergeant"; contrast the stative "the window was broken", meaning "X had broken the window"), and secondly because "broke him to private", while quite rare by comparison (less than one-tenth as many hits on b.g.c.), is definitely cite-able. —Ruakh TALK 16:13, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

RFV failed, sense removed, in that no one has presented evidence of use as an adjective. I've added the relevant sense to [[break]], with three cites. —Ruakh TALK 15:25, 21 August 2010 (UTC)