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housebreaker

[ hous-brey-ker ]

/ ˈhaʊsˌbreɪ kər /

SEE SYNONYMS FOR housebreaker ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a person who breaks into and enters a house with a felonious intent.

British.

a worker or wrecking company that demolishes houses and buildings, as to make room for new construction.
a person who buys doors, paneled walls, etc., from standing houses, to sell as antiques; a person who dismantles a house of its valuable parts before it is torn down.

QUIZZES

This Word Of The Day Quiz Is Far From Thersitical

Have you mastered the meaning of phronesis? How about plethoric? Take the quiz on the words from the week of February 17 to 23 to find out.

Question 1 of 7

Lincolnesque

without interest or significance; dull; insipid.

like or characteristic of Abraham Lincoln.

very high or tall; lofty.

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Words nearby housebreaker

house-warming, houseboat, housebound, houseboy, housebreak, housebreaker, housebreaking, housebroken, housecarl, housecat, houseclean

Origin of housebreaker

1275–1325; Middle English. See house, breaker¹

OTHER WORDS FROM housebreaker

house·break·ing, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Example sentences from the Web for housebreaker

I run up to the window, I see the Rebbe is really in the room, he is walking up and down, I am about to enter like a housebreaker.
Stories and Pictures|Isaac Loeb Peretz
In a large number of cases the servants are only the unconscious instrument in the hands of the housebreaker.
Curiosities of Civilization|Andrew Wynter
What the housebreaker saw was a vision of dazzling beauty in a flood of light.
M. or N. "Similia similibus curantur."|G.J. Whyte-Melville
The following life of a thief and housebreaker, written by himself, is curious and sad.
Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents and Strange Events|S. Baring-Gould

Easy, then—the window being left open—for some midnight housebreaker from the street to have come in and attacked him.
Mrs. Halliburton's Troubles|Mrs. Henry Wood

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