Word.ws English Dictionary

greenbroke

greenbroke adjective: newly tamed; not fully domesticated for all forms of working.

Adjective

greenbroke (comparative more greenbroke, superlative most greenbroke)

  1. Newly tamed; not fully domesticated for all forms of working.
    • Just halfway decent greenbroke horses. Say six saddles. Double and stop and stand still to be saddled.1992, Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses, →ISBN, page 103
    • Maggie dashed away the tear tracks on her cheeks. “Thank you, Mr. Potts. I believe I' ll take you up on your offer as my colt is only greenbroke, and the only other horse I know how to ride is gone—pulling our cart .1995, Katharine Kincaid, Ride the Wind, page 364
  2. (broadly) Somewhat wild or inexperienced; not completely socialized or comfortable with an activity.
    • He writes: "To my daughter Caroline, a greenbroke five-year-old, who despite the occasional need of a heavy hand gives promise of an eventual good, if spirited performance.”1943, 132, Wilson library bulletin - Volume 18, page 132
    • Here the women are barely greenbroke , the men handsome charismatic cheats ; even the ghosts compel us to listen hard to their too-late wisdom .1994, Jonis Agee, Strange Angels

Examples of greenbroke in a sentence

  • This is readily seen in the greenbroke horse that has yet to build full confidence in its rider.1998, Joy Roberts, The Joy of Horses, page 28:
  • We'll add a greenbroke pack animal and you can break him on the trail.2001, Richard S. Wheeler, Going Home:

Forms of greenbroke

comparativemore greenbroke
superlativemost greenbroke
alternative formgreen-broke

Origin of greenbroke

From green + broke.

Questions about greenbroke

What does greenbroke mean?
Greenbroke means newly tamed; not fully domesticated for all forms of working.
How do you use greenbroke in a sentence?
This is readily seen in the greenbroke horse that has yet to build full confidence in its rider.
What part of speech is greenbroke?
Greenbroke is an adjective.

Words near greenbroke in the dictionary

  1. greenbriar
  2. greenbriars
  3. greenbrier
  4. Greenbrier County
  5. greenbriers
  6. greenbroke
  7. greenbug
  8. greenbugs
  9. greenbul
  10. greenbuls
  11. Greenburg

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: greenbroke (page history and authors). 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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