rules were made to be broken
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Rules can be disregarded if necessary or beneficial
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Quy tắc có thể bị phá vỡ nếu cần thiết hoặc có lợi
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, 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 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “rules were made to be broken” mean?
Rules can be disregarded if necessary or beneficial
Is “rules were made to be broken” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.