Break-in

noun

noun ·2 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 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."

  2. 2
    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. attributive, often

    "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."

  3. 3
    trespassing for an unlawful purpose; illegal entrance into premises with criminal intent wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
breaking and enteringburglaryhousebreaking

Example

More examples

"There's no sign of forced break-in."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Deverbal from break in.

Etymology 2

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.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.