Definition
A burglar is a person who commits burglary. At common law, this meant one who broke and entered a dwelling house of another in the nighttime with the intent to commit a felony therein. Modern statutes in most American jurisdictions have significantly expanded the definition, altering or abandoning the common law requirements of nighttime, breaking, dwelling, and felonious intent, such that a burglar today may include one who unlawfully enters any structure — not merely a residence — at any hour, with intent to commit any crime, not just a felony.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A person who breaks in to premises with the intent of committing theft.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One guilty of the crime of burglary.
The gap between common and legal meaning is consequential. Ordinary usage equates burglar with someone who breaks in to steal — a thief who enters by force. The legal definition, both historically and under many modern statutes, is broader in intent (any felony, not just theft) and, at common law, was narrower in other respects (nighttime, dwelling house, actual breaking). A person who enters a commercial building in daylight to commit assault may be a burglar under many modern statutes but would not match the popular image of the term at all.
Common Confusion
Burglar and robber are frequently conflated in ordinary speech. They describe legally distinct offenses. A robber takes property from a person by force or threat of force — the victim is present. A burglar unlawfully enters a premises with criminal intent — no confrontation with a victim is required. The two crimes can overlap (a burglar who then confronts an occupant may also commit robbery), but they are separately charged offenses with distinct elements.
Burglar and trespasser are also confused. A trespasser unlawfully enters or remains on property but lacks the requisite criminal intent that defines burglary. Intent is the operative distinction.
Why It Matters in Research
The term burglar is legally inert without reference to its governing burglary statute, because what a burglar is depends entirely on how burglary is defined in the relevant jurisdiction and era. Researchers working with historical sources — indictments, treatises, case reporters — must be alert to whether the common law definition or a statutory modification controls. The common law burglar was a nocturnal housebreaker; the modern statutory burglar may be someone who enters a parked car in daylight.
In historical indictments, the word burglariously was a term of art held essential at common law — Rapalje & Lawrence flag this explicitly. Researchers examining pre-statutory American or English criminal records should expect to see this adverb as a pleading requirement, and its absence was often grounds for challenge. Modern indictments generally do not carry this requirement.
The corpus will reflect two distinct phases: common law burglar definitions appearing in early American and English materials, and the progressive statutory expansion in American jurisdictions through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The definitional shift accelerated as states codified criminal law, often dropping the nighttime element first, then expanding covered structures beyond dwelling houses. Researchers comparing materials across these periods must not assume definitional continuity.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in close agreement on the core common law definition: one who by night breaks and enters a dwelling house with intent to commit a felony. Bouvier quotes Wilmot on burglary (Burgl. 8) for the proposition. Burrill adds the most texture, tracing the Latin roots — burglator, burgator, quasi burgi latro, the robber of a burg or fenced place — and citing Coke (3 Inst. 63), which remains the foundational common law authority. Burrill also explicitly notes that in American law the definition had been considerably modified by the time of his writing, making him the most jurisdictionally candid of the historical sources.
Black's (both editions) and Bouvier are functionally identical in their entries. Rapalje & Lawrence is notable primarily for the parenthetical observation about burglariously as an indictment term of art — a procedural point the other dictionaries pass over. Anderson's entry for burglar in the provided source material is corrupted (the text supplied relates to construction, not the term), and should not be relied upon for this entry.
None of the historical dictionaries adequately address the statutory transformation of burglary in American law. Researchers should treat these entries as describing the common law baseline only and consult jurisdiction-specific statutory history for anything beyond that.
Jurisdictional Note
American jurisdictions vary widely in how they define burglary, and therefore who qualifies as a burglar. Many states have tiered burglary statutes (first, second, third degree) with different structural and temporal elements at each level. The Model Penal Code's formulation — which abandoned the nighttime requirement and extended coverage to any building or structure — has been broadly influential but unevenly adopted. English law has also evolved through statute, particularly the Theft Act 1968, diverging from the common law baseline that the historical dictionaries describe.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Burglary
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Common Law Crimes
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Criminal Intent (Mens Rea)