What does "those are the breaks" mean? [closed]
I remarked to a friend, "It's too bad I have to wake up early," and he responded "those are the breaks."
What does this mean? Isn't it a bad thing to wake up late, which would be the opposite of a break?
- That’s the way things turn out (used to express resigned acceptance of a situation).
From http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/break
The phrase is way down in the phrases section. It may have originated from billiards, see definition 7, as in if you have a bad run of breaks, you just have to deal with it.