n.
  - a crack or break, especially in a bone or a rock stratum. ▸the cracking or breaking of a hard object or material. ▸the shape of the surface formed by a freshly broken rock or mineral. 
- Phonetics  the replacement of a simple vowel by a diphthong owing to the influence of a following sound, typically a consonant.
v.
 break or cause to break. 
▸(of a group) break up or fragment.
Etymology
  ME: from Fr., or from L. fractura, from frangere ‘to break’.