| 释义 |
housebreaker|ˈhaʊsbreɪkə(r)|
1. One who breaks open and enters a house with intent to commit robbery or other felony.
c1340Cursor M. 6747 (Fairf.) Thefe housbreker in any stounde. 1483Cath. Angl. 190/2 An Howse breker, apercularius. 1662J. Davies tr. Olearius' Voy. Ambass. 280 A House-breaker coming one night into his House. 1727Swift What passed in London, Highway-men, house-breakers, and common pick-pockets. 1855Macaulay 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.]. 1892Times 6 Dec. 11/4 The whole of the block of houses..is in process of demolition..the ‘house-breakers’ being already at work. 1898Daily News 22 July 6/1 The house-breaker—the man of the pick, not the jemmy—is hard at work. |
