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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.

Origin of housebreaker

1275–1325; Middle English. See house, breaker¹

OTHER WORDS FROM housebreaker

house·break·ing, noun

Words nearby housebreaker

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

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