break somebody's spirit

For three years he had been trying to break her spirit.

It is done more to break your spirit than anything else, I think.

A woman shouldn't use that to break a man's spirit.

This was the kind of loss that can break a team's spirit.

It would break his spirit if you were to die also.

It will take much to break that man's spirit, he thought.

They must have done awful things to him, trying to break his spirit.

Were they planning to break his spirit and turn him to their own uses?

To lose such a game, then, could break a team's spirit.

No, Michael thought, they didn't break my spirit in any jail.