break the news

1. Make something known, as in We suspected that she was pregnant but waited for her to break the news to her in-laws. This term, in slightly different form (break a matter or break a business), dates from the early 1500s. Another variant is the 20th-century journalistic phrase, break a story, meaning “to reveal a news item or make it available for publication.”

Example Sentences

In April 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, it fell to Robert F. Kennedy to break the news to a largely Black crowd in Indianapolis.

From Los Angeles Times

"You knew at some point you were gonna need to strut into your family home and break the news to your family that you're gay."

From BBC

He had to break the news to his brother.

From BBC

And I even remember Don, Jeremy and I one day, I think we were shooting the scene where Don’s character takes Terry with David Denman’s character to the hospital before they break the news to him.

From Los Angeles Times

When the world learned of Pope Francis' death on Monday morning, an Irish-American cardinal, little known in the wider world, was the one to break the news.

From BBC

Related Words

• advise 
• announce 
• confess 
• declare 
• disclose 
• explain 
• express 
• inform 
• instruct 
• mention 
• notify 
• order 
• report 
• reveal 
• say 
• speak 
• state 
• summon