How do I run a command which isn't bound to a key?

[Alan Mackenzie <acm@xxxxxx>]

Hi, mutt!

Mutt 1.5.9i (2005-03-13)

At the moment, I want to break a thread in two, because the messages
don't belong together.  The command to do this is `break-thread', bound
by default to #.  However, I unbound this key long ago, because hitting
it by accident was so easy and so painful.

What I want to do is to type in a key-sequence (equivalent to Emacs's
M-x), type "break-thread", hit carriage return and have it work.  It
seems that the key-sequence should be ":".  Yet when I type

    :break-thread<CR>

, I get the error message "break-thread: unknown command".

The manual isn't helping me enough here.  It says:

  enter-command (default: ``:'')

  This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in
  a configuration file.  A common use is to check the settings of
  variables, or in conjunction with ``macros'' to change settings on the
  fly.

, which isn't helpful enough because it doesn't really say what a
"command" is.  Is `break-thread' not a command?  I've certainly put it
in my configuration file, even if only to unbind it from #.  It also
says what enter-command is for, but not how to use it.  I think that
typing in a command name after ":" is what's wanted, but it would be
nice for this to be documented explicitly (say, with an exmple), so that
I'm not left guessing whether I've typed in the command wrongly or typed
in a wrong command.

At the moment, I'm guessing that `break-thread' isn't a command, in the
sense of ":".  It's something else (what?).

Is there, in fact, a way to do what I want without going through the
tedium of rebinding the #-key just for a single use?  If so, what is it?

Thanks in advance for the help!

-- 
Alan Mackenzie (Nuremberg, Germany).