housebreaker
(ˈhaʊsbreɪkə(r))
1. One who breaks open and enters a house with intent to commit robbery or other felony.
| c 1340 Cursor M. 6747 (Fairf.) Thefe housbreker in any stounde. 1483 Cath. Angl. 190/2 An Howse breker, apercularius. 1662 J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 280 A House-breaker coming one night into his House. 1727 Swift What passed in London, Highway-men, house-breakers, and common pick-pockets. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xix. IV. 295 During the autumn of 1692 and the following winter, the capital was kept in constant terror by housebreakers. |
2. One whose business it is to demolish houses.
| 1875 [Remembered in use by a correspt.]. 1892 Times 6 Dec. 11/4 The whole of the block of houses..is in process of demolition..the ‘house-breakers’ being already at work. 1898 Daily News 22 July 6/1 The house-breaker—the man of the pick, not the jemmy—is hard at work. |