Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a remark, poss. in bad taste.

1906		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Brief Debut of Tildy’ in Four Million (1915) 256: Sashayed up, so he did, and made a break. I turned him down, cold.
1910		Magnet 3 Sept. 5: What on earth did you make a break like that for, Toddy?
1917		Wodehouse ‘ Crowned Heads’ in Man with Two Left Feet 98: He of Tennessee would sasshay up in a flip manner and make a break. Ted, waiting close by, would resent his insolence.
1927		D. Parker ‘Arangement in Black and White’ in Parker (1943) 10: Did you hear that terrible break I made? I was just going to say Katherine Burke looked almost like a nigger.
1934		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Young Manhood in Studs Lonigan (1936) 330: Those aren’t the kind of breaks you want to be making at a time like this.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.