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Glite Dictionary
broken in

broken in

1 5.2
An animal trained to let people ride or touch it
  • adjective
  • /ˈbroʊkən ɪn/
: domado
  • The way I see it, we're always broken in one way or another.
  • broken-in boots
  • perfectly broken in

Examples

  • Choosing a broken in horse for beginners is important, as they are easier to handle.

  • After weeks of training, the once wild stallion became a broken in horse, ready for riding.

  • But a horse is a damn sight easier to ride if it's been broken in.

    The Stolen (2017)

  • We can't take him back until he's broken in.

    War Horse (2011)

  • The rider was thrilled to finally get on a broken in horse that followed all his commands.

Synonyms

broken
vsbroken in
  • Specialized
3 5.8

Tamed and trained to obey people

adds acceptance of being ridden rather than only obedience
tamed
vsbroken in
3 1.8

Made less wild so people can control it

refers to training for obedience or riding rather than general domestication

Antonyms

wild
430 1.0

Living in a natural state and not tamed by people

untamed
15 3.8

In a natural state that people do not tame, like wild animals or places

How Tame

well-trained
58 3.7
trained
386 1.9
broken in
1 5.2
unbroken
1 8.0

Surface Forms

broken in positive

Morphology

broken + in

The meaning 'tamed or trained' comes from the phrasal verb 'break in' and the idea of being made submissive; knowing 'broken' (subdued/damaged) and 'in' (into a state) gives a partial clue but does not fully predict the specialized sense of training an animal. This is a conventionalized, somewhat metaphorical extension, so a B1 learner might infer something related but would likely need exposure to be confident.

Etymology

Broken in comes from horse training. In training, people said a horse was broken in when they had broken its wild ways and taught it to accept a rider, so broken in came to mean 'tamed' or 'trained'.