Housebroke

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. A term describing an animal that has been trained to relieve itself outside or in a designated area rather than indoors
2. Referring to a pet, typically a dog or cat, that is adept at controlling its bathroom habits and avoids indoor accidents
3. Denoting the status of a domesticated animal that is effectively house-trained to prevent messiness inside a home

Etymology: "Housebroke" is the simple past of "housebreak," a verb that for most of its history meant something quite different from house-training a pet. Its older sense was the criminal one: to break into a dwelling, a meaning that is still in the word's family today. The animal-training sense is the later development, and it grew out of the adjective "housebroken," which described a dog or cat that had learned to relieve itself outside rather than indoors. The verb "housebreak" was then back-formed from that adjective, meaning someone reasoned backward from "housebroken" to create a new verb. So the verb built on the adjective rather than the other way round, and the past tense "housebroke" follows the pattern of "break, broke, broken," which explains why the form sounds like a strong verb even though the word is a relatively modern coinage in this sense.

Synonyms: trained, domesticated, tame, obedient, well-behaved

Antonyms: wild, untamed, untrained, disobedient, unruly