What does break yarn mean? And what's winding off?

I Have a pattern that says to “break yarn leaving sixteen inch tail” Does that mean to cut the yarn? Later the pattern says to “wind off 48 inches of yarn, join yarn to center side of three. BO sts. Work 8 st in pattern, CO 1 st. Wind off 60 inches of yarn, join to outside of right eye by making a slipknot and sliding it onto RH needle” I’m just lost.

“break yarn leaving sixteen inch tail”

Yes, break yarn is just knit speak for cut the yarn. Leave an end of it 16" long.

This part about “winding off” just means to take some yarn off of a ball or skein the length given. One with be a piece 48" long and the other 60" long. You take the length of yarn and start knitting with it where it tells you to on that first part. That is what “join” means–just start knitting with that length of yarn. On this part

join to outside of right eye by making a slipknot and sliding it onto RH needle" I’m just lost
I don’t know. That is a new one to me.

This must be an animal pattern? The “eye”? What is the pattern? Can you provide a link to it or the book or magazine and page number you got it from? (You can’t just scan it in or type in the entire pattern, here, due to copyright issues.)

“join to outside of right eye by making a slipknot and sliding it onto RH needle”

I think they’re just telling you to attach the yarn end to the needle. I’m not sure why, mostly you just leave a tail and thread it in later.

It’s a mask pattern from [U]not another teen knitting book[/U] its on page 72.