Definition

Verb: * To train a domestic animal, especially a dog or cat, to urinate and defecate only in designated outdoor areas or on specific indoor materials (like a litter box), and not inside the home.

Usage

• This verb is used when describing the process of teaching a pet proper bathroom habits for living indoors.
• It is typically used with pets as the direct object.
• The past tense is housebroke or housebroken. The past participle is housebroken.

Examples

• "It took us three months to housebreak our new puppy."
• "Is your cat housebroken yet?"
• "A consistent schedule is key to successfully housebreaking a dog."

Advanced Usage

• The term implies a process of conditioning and habit formation.
• While commonly used for dogs and cats, it can apply to other domesticated animals kept indoors, such as rabbits or ferrets.

Variants and Related Words

• Housebroken (adjective): Describes a pet that has been successfully trained.
  • "We only adopt housebroken adult dogs."
• House-training (noun): The process or act of housebreaking.
  • "House-training requires a lot of patience."

Synonyms

• Potty-train: More common in modern, informal speech, especially regarding dogs.
• Litter-train: Specifically for training a cat to use a litter box.
• Toilet-train: Sometimes used, though it can imply training to use a human toilet.

Notes

• Housebreak is a closed compound word. Do not confuse it with the separate noun phrase "house break," which could mean a break from work to be at home or, archaically, a burglary.
• The term is specific to animal training and is not used for teaching human children.

Verb

1. train (a pet) to live cleanly in a house