0 a safety device that stops the flow of current in an electrical circuit when there is a fault:
1 something that interrupts a series of events, usually intentionally because they are developing in a harmful way:
Circuit breakers halt trading on the nation's stock markets during dramatic drops.
For the last two years, the Democratic Senate majority had provided a circuit-breaker for the House Speaker's conservative initiatives.
The leader of the opposition called for a two-week circuit breaker to arrest the spike in the pandemic.
2 a safety device that stops the flow of current to an electrical system:
3 a piece of equipment that stops the flow of an electric current, used to prevent damage to the wires and equipment that are connected to it:
4 a rule that temporarily stops trade on a stock market or closes it when prices go down to a particular level too quickly:
The New York Stock Exchange instituted circuit breakers to reduce volatility and promote investor confidence.
There are three circuit-breaker thresholds—10%, 20%, and 30%— calculated at the beginning of each quarter.
You always have to have a circuit breaker so you can disable the system if there is some problem.
Using a circuit-breaker with an electric mower is a very good idea.
Under no circumstances should the flight crew reactivate the circuit-breaker after it has tripped.
A bank holiday could work as a circuit breaker to calm the market down.
If the newspaper's agenda was to get rid of the Prime Minister, they have failed badly: the revelations have been a circuit breaker and let him off the hook.
The whole point of the shell-company system is to act as a circuit-breaker, so that the chain of ownership goes dead.
A sharp change to the value of a currency would act as a circuit-breaker and render trading in that currency unprofitable.
A circuit breaker popped, and red lights blazed all over the instrument panel.
