Meanings
present singular third person housebreaks · participle present housebreaking · past housebroke · participle past housebroken
- UStransitiveTo train an animal to avoid urinating or defecating in the house, except within a litterbox, toilet, or other receptacle.
Synonyms: housetrain, toilet-train
- USintransitiveTo break into a house, typically to burgle it.
plural housebreaks
- Synonym of housebreaking.
Synonyms: housebreaking
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo train an animal to avoid urinating or defecating in the house, except within a litterbox, toilet, or other receptacle.
nounSynonym of housebreaking.
More synonyms by meaning
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
From house + break, back-formed from housebroken in the animal-training sense.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Hungarian szobatisztaságra szoktat
- szobatisztaságra szoktattrain an animal to avoid urinating in the house
Portuguese domesticar
- domesticartrain an animal to avoid urinating in the house
Cite this entry
housebreak. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/housebreak
“housebreak.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/housebreak. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “housebreak,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/housebreak.
Source: housebreak on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.