Word.ws English Dictionary

break-in

/ˈbɹeɪkˌɪn/

break-in noun: the act of entering a place with the intent to steal or commit some other offense; an instance of breaking and entering.

Noun (1)

break-in (plural break-ins)

  1. The act of entering a place with the intent to steal or commit some other offense; an instance of breaking and entering.
    • There was a break-in at the shop; everything was taken.

Noun (2)

break-in (plural break-ins)

  1. (attributive, often) A novelty record where a question is asked or a comment is raised, and the replies are lyrics from other songs, sampled from the recordings.
    • Described by Ken Simpson as a ... novelty record where ‘snippets of current hits’ are inserted into ‘a little melodrama almost set up as a newscast’ (Simpson 2016), the first example of a break-in record that I am aware of is ... The Flying Saucer.2021, Justin Morey, “UK Sampling Practice”, in Ewa Mazierska, editor, The Evolution of Electronic Dance Music, page 66

break-in meaning in Malayalam

break-in in Malayalam

burglary, robbery, theft
ഭവനഭേദനം, ഗൃഹഭംഗം, പൂട്ടുപൊളിച്ച് അകത്തുകടക്കൽ, കുത്തിക്കവർച്ച, വീടുകുത്തിത്തുറന്നു മോഷണം നടത്തൽ, ചുവരു തുരന്നു മോഷണം നടത്തൽ

Forms of break-in

pluralbreak-ins

Origin of break-in

Deverbal from break in.

Coined by Bill Buchanan and Dickie Goodman to describe their then-new song The Flying Saucer, referring to how material from one song would break into their song.

Questions about break-in

What does break-in mean?
Break-in means the act of entering a place with the intent to steal or commit some other offense; an instance of breaking and entering.
What is break-in in Malayalam?
Break-in in Malayalam is ഭവനഭേദനം, ഗൃഹഭംഗം, പൂട്ടുപൊളിച്ച് അകത്തുകടക്കൽ. See Break-in meaning in Malayalam.
What part of speech is break-in?
Break-in is a noun.
How do you pronounce break-in?
Break-in is pronounced /ˈbɹeɪkˌɪn/.
What is the plural of break-in?
The plural of break-in is break-ins.

Words near break-in in the dictionary

  1. break-even time
  2. break-even times
  3. break-evens
  4. break-fast
  5. break-fasts
  6. break-in
  7. break-ins
  8. break-of-gauge station
  9. break-of-gauge stations
  10. break-off
  11. break-offs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: break-in (page history and authors); break-in (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “break-in.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/break-in. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.