break-in
noun
an illegal entry into a home, car, office, etc.
break-in
American
[breyk-in]
/ ˈbreɪkˌɪn /
break in
British
verb
-
(sometimes foll by on) to interrupt
-
(intr) to enter a house, etc, illegally, esp by force
-
(tr) to accustom (a person or animal) to normal duties or practice
-
(tr) to use or wear (shoes, new equipment, etc) until comfortable or running smoothly
-
(tr) to bring (new land) under cultivation
noun
break in
Idioms
-
Enter by force, as in The thieves broke in through the back door . [Mid-1500s] Also see break into .
-
Also, break in on . Interrupt or disturb something unexpectedly, as in His assistant broke in with the bad news just as we were ready to sign the agreement , or He broke in on our private talks . [Mid-1600s]
-
Train or instruct someone in a new job or enterprise, as in Every semester she had to break in a new teaching assistant . [Late 1700s]
-
Loosen or soften with use, as in It takes a while to break in a pair of new shoes .
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of break-in
First recorded in 1855–60; noun use of verb phrase break in
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The woman alleged that the deputy falsified a break-in report just to visit her home, and he later pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges, according to a civil lawsuit and court records.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
The break-in process could take even longer given Warsh’s big divergence with past chiefs.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 30, 2026
The victim was Hugging Face, a provider of open-source AI tools; it discovered the break-in early last week.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
Martin died last October in a hospital following his arrest by Oakland police officers responding to reports of a break-in at a residence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
On the way back Jan happened to run into Mr. van Hoeven, the man who supplies us with potatoes, and told him of the break-in.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
Norman had already worked the room at the cocktail hour and during a break in the meal.
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
That’s a big part of why “The End of Oak Street” feels like a break in the pattern from the jump.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
"He was a star... He had chosen the spotlight," Ditum argued, acknowledging that his story had the "misfortune" to break in the middle of a summer news vacuum.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
On a few occasions, the odd break in the cloud gave a glimpse of the Sun and the Moon for a few seconds.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
She’s staring down at Ziggy, who’s using this break in our walk to scratch himself with his back leg.
From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks
San Francisco car break-ins dropped from 22,700 in 2022 to 1,764 so far in 2026.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 23, 2026
Former Home Secretary Yvette Cooper banned the group on advice from the police and security officials after an escalating spate of break-ins targeting Elbit, an Israeli-owned defence firm.
From BBC ● Jul. 30, 2026
In Madrid, Karim Benzema, Rodrygo and Dani Carvajal are among the football stars to have suffered break-ins at their homes in recent years.
From Barron's ● Jul. 15, 2026
Sacher, operations manager at the popular sports bar Barney’s Beanery, which he said suffered four or five overnight break-ins in 2020 and 2021.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
During a predawn breakfast of liver pate and fig cookies, we gather around Tigris’s television for one of Beetee’s break-ins.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
