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housebroken

American  
[hous-broh-kuhn] / ˈhaʊsˌbroʊ kən /

adjective

  1. (of a pet) trained to avoid excreting inside the house or in improper places.


Etymology

Origin of housebroken

First recorded in 1895–1900; house + broken

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:

After the increasingly disastrous three “Jurassic World” movies, which were vacuums of appeal as their star Chris Pratt plodded about bemoaning his precious housebroken velociraptors, the “Jurassic” series desperately needed a shot in the arm.

From Salon Jul. 3, 2025

Puppies are a ton of work, 24 hours a day, and there are loads of pleasant 1-year-old dogs who are already housebroken and leash-trained clogging our nation’s shelters.

From Slate Jun. 29, 2018

Brazelton told the Times that the idea that a child should be housebroken like a puppy was “very logical – for a puppy.”

From Seattle Times Mar. 13, 2018

Are parents just tame animals, housebroken and desexed?

From New York Times Oct. 2, 2017

Here I’d left a sweet, well-mannered, housebroken cat behind and they were dragging along two disgusting, smelly, flea-covered monkeys.

From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz

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