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Was the wicket broken "While I was taking my turn to umpire for a few overs, the bowler bowled a ball that hit the batsman's stumps and sent just one of the bails an inch or two up in the air. Amazingly, this bail came down and settled, precariously balancing on the top of one of its two original stumps. There was then a huge appeal, but my feeling was that the wicket was not properly 'broken' so I gave the batsman Not out. Was I right?" You were quite correct but the correct term to use according to Law 29 is 'the wicket is down' 
For a wicket to be legally down a minimum of one bail must be completely and
permanently removed from the top of the stumps while the ball is in play. Here the bail settled back
on the top of a stump, so the batsman was Not out.  If the bail had slipped down and become stuck between the stumps,
he would have been out Bowled. Read more about Law 29 (Wicket is down) at the MCC website | ||||||