Pirate

/ˈpaɪɹət/ · noun

Meaning

A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns..

Definitions by Sense

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. (by extension) One who breaks intellectual property laws by reproducing protected works without permission.
4. (ornithology) A bird which practises kleptoparasitism.
5. A kind of marble in children's games.
6. (transitive) To appropriate by piracy; to plunder at sea.
7. (transitive, copyright law) To create and/or sell an unauthorized copy of.
8. (transitive, copyright law) To knowingly obtain an unauthorized copy of.

Example Sentences

You should be cautious due to the Somali pirates.

How did you do it? Have you searched for hidden treasure, or discovered a pole, or done time on a pirate, or flown the Channel, or what? Where is the glamour of romance? How did you get it?

The third day out a pirate (Terebinthian by her rig) overhauled us, but when she saw us well armed she stood off after some shooting of arrows on either part—

And Gnutella, Freenet and other pirate tools will offer plunderings beyond Fanning's fantasies.

They had watches that said Gucci or Rolex on them even though it was obvious they'd come straight here from some pirate factory in China.

If we untangle the claim that technology has turned Johnny Teenager into a pirate, what turns out to be fueling it is the idea that if Johnny Teenager were to share his unauthorized copy with two million of his closest friends the effect on a record company would be pretty similar to the effect of some CD factory's creating two million CDs and selling them cheap.

Most of the time it went fine; some of his classmates had so many marbles they could have opened up their own shop in smurfs, pirates, purple aggies and pink panthers.

They pirated the tanker and sailed to a port where they could sell the ship and cargo.

Synonyms for pirate

Antonyms for pirate

Related Words

Word Forms

• pirates
• pyrate
• pirating
• pirated

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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