pirate

Meaning

Noun

1. A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns.
2. An armed ship or vessel that sails for the purpose of plundering other vessels.
3. (broadly) One who breaks intellectual property laws by reproducing protected works without permission.
4. A bird which practises kleptoparasitism.
5. A kind of marble in children's games.

Verb

1. (transitive) To appropriate by piracy; to plunder at sea.
2. (transitive) To create and/or sell an unauthorized copy of.
3. (transitive) To knowingly obtain an unauthorized copy of.
4. (intransitive) To engage in piracy.
5. (Philippines, intransitive, transitive) To entice an employee to switch from a competing company to one's own.

Adj

Illegally imitated or reproduced, said of a trademarked product or copyrighted work, or of the counterfeit itself.

Synonyms

buccaneer

corsair

hijack

sea robber

sea rover

thief

plagiarizer

sea-robber

plagiarist

freebooter

plagiariser

literary pirate

plunderer

filibuster

picaroon

pirate ship

robber

plunder

hijacker

commandeer

highjack

rob

rover

marauder

moocher

mug

outrage

pirates

plagiarise

plagiarize

plagiary

prejudice

prig

purloiner

raid

ransack

reave

rip off

scrounger

seize

snatch

snitcher

stealer

stick up

transgress

Viking

violate

water-rat

encroach on

swiper

Translations

pirate

pirata

Pirat

piraat

pirata

pirata

πειρατής

korsan

zeerover

Seeräuber

pirata

corsaire

corsário

pirata

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈpaɪ̯(ə)ɹɪt/

Etymology

From Middle English pirate, pirat, pyrat, from Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta (“pirate”), from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".