housebroken
adjective
house·bro·ken
ˈhau̇s-ˌbrō-kən 
1
: trained to excretory habits acceptable in indoor living
—used of a household pet
2
: made tractable or polite
Examples of housebroken in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
One housebroken joey would watch television in their living room.
—
Washington Post, 15 Apr. 2021
The country’s leading art educator was the mediocre German painter Anton Raphael Mengs, who promulgated a sort of housebroken neoclassicism.
—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2020
Dogs supposedly trained to detect and respond to potentially life-threatening blood sugar levels in people with diabetes were, in reality, often untrained, un-housebroken puppies with hefty pricetags—currently set at $25,000.
—Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 10 May 2018
Sherman, discarded by the Seahawks, arrives with bad-puppy baggage — old, banged-up, a rep for being not quite housebroken.
—Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Mar. 2018
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Washington Post, 15 Apr. 2021
The country’s leading art educator was the mediocre German painter Anton Raphael Mengs, who promulgated a sort of housebroken neoclassicism.
—Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, 14 Sep. 2020
Dogs supposedly trained to detect and respond to potentially life-threatening blood sugar levels in people with diabetes were, in reality, often untrained, un-housebroken puppies with hefty pricetags—currently set at $25,000.
—Beth Mole, Ars Technica, 10 May 2018
Sherman, discarded by the Seahawks, arrives with bad-puppy baggage — old, banged-up, a rep for being not quite housebroken.
—Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Mar. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Housebroken.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/housebroken. Accessed 4 Nov. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
housebroken
adjective
house·bro·ken
-ˌbrō-kən
: trained in habits of eliminating bodily waste that are acceptable in indoor living
a housebroken dog
Medical Definition
housebroken
adjective
house·bro·ken
-ˌbrō-kən
: trained to excretory habits acceptable in indoor living
—used of a household pet
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