adj, adv, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A fall that breaks the neck.
2. 2
   A dangerous steep place from which one could fall and be injured.

Adjective

1. 1
   Dangerously fast; hell-for-leather.

   "breakneck pace"

Adjective

1. 1
   moving at very high speed wordnet

Adverb

1. 1
   Dangerously fast. not-comparable

   "I ran breakneck another hundred yards."

Synonyms

All synonyms

dangerousabruptaccident proneaccident-proneagilebluff

Example

More examples

"The motorcycle started in pursuit at breakneck speed."

Etymology

From break + neck.

Related phrases

hell for leather

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.