make a break for it

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To suddenly try to escape or run away quickly

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Đột ngột cố gắng trốn thoát hoặc chạy đi nhanh

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: to make a sudden run
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The prisoners made a break for it when the guard turned his back

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “make a break for it” mean?

To suddenly try to escape or run away quickly Literally: to make a sudden run

Is “make a break for it” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.