breaking in

verb

present participle of break in
1
as in invading
to enter a house or building by force usually with illegal intent the burglars broke in by smashing a window

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in interrupting
to cause a disruption in a conversation or discussion he rudely broke in to drop the names of several celebrities that he had met

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of breaking in The employee watched the security footage and found that nobody was breaking in. — Theresa Clift, Sacbee.com, 21 Sep. 2026 History is only half of the equation here, as both the Tigers and Gators are breaking in new coaches who just as easily could have been on opposite sidelines. — Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 17 Sep. 2026 Just recently, a client came to us because their onboarding and user data pipeline kept breaking in ways their users could feel. — Dan Haiem, Forbes.com, 27 May 2026 Not a week goes by without news of a high-profile auction breaking in Publishers Weekly. — Literary Hub, 28 Apr. 2026 Other teams breaking in transfer quarterbacks are Illinois (Katin Houser, East Carolina), Nebraska (Anthony Colandrea, UNLV), Northwestern (Aidan Chiles, Michigan State), Penn State (Rocco Becht, Iowa State) and Wisconsin (Colton Joseph, Old Dominion). — Eric Olson, Chicago Tribune, 27 Apr. 2026 The building had kept deteriorating over the course of time, with people continually breaking in, Olson said. — Chilekasi Adele, CBS News, 13 Apr. 2026 If the matter-antimatter asymmetry arose due to a breaking of a certain cosmic symmetry at a higher energy, then restoring the symmetry could lead to that symmetry re-breaking in a different fashion. — Big Think, 5 Mar. 2026 Wild forward Nico Sturm has been breaking in his Team Germany skates at a few Minnesota practices, and joked about hiding his on-ice moves from NHL teammates that may be foes in Italy. — Jess Myers, Twin Cities, 5 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for breaking in
  1. invading
  2. interrupting
  3. robbing
  4. cutting in
Verb
  • In 1867, the British government united its North American colonies to form the Canadian Confederation, in part to deter Washington from invading Canada in retaliation for London’s assistance to the Confederacy during the Civil War.
    — Robert B. Zoellick, Foreign Affairs, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Paola Nicolaides was 12 years old in 1974, when her family fled their home in the capital, Nicosia, escaping the invading Turkish army.
    — Deepa Fernandes, STAT, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of invading
Verb
  • The landscape is dry and largely treeless, with canyons and volcanic monoliths periodically interrupting the otherwise unending steppe.
    — Jordan Salama, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
  • This talks about the brands not interrupting storytelling, but being a part of it.
    — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of interrupting
Verb
  • Guardado was convicted of robbing and killing a woman in order to buy drugs in 2004.
    — David Fischer, Los Angeles Times, 13 Oct. 2026
  • To her, romance and courtship isn’t just ambient but invasive, robbing her of friends — both in the sense that men can’t seem to leave things platonic, while women either mock her or shun her in favor of a new date.
    — Kambole Campbell, Variety, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of robbing
Verb
  • As with the Pattern One, the grip ended in a round top nut, which secured the rat-tail tang to the grip, though the fitting was now done by cutting off the tang to length and cutting in the screw to take the nut.
    — David Szondy August 30, New Atlas, 30 Aug. 2026
  • Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is a constant threat cutting in from the left, and if Dembélé features, he will be given the freedom to drift and find pockets of space centrally.
    — Dean Jones, New York Times, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of cutting in

Browse Nearby Words

breaking free
breaking in
breaking off
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Breaking in.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/breaking%20in. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

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