buccaneer

noun

buc·​ca·​neer ˌbə-kə-ˈnir 

1

: any of the freebooters preying on Spanish ships and settlements especially in 17th century West Indies

broadly : pirate

2

: an unscrupulous adventurer especially in politics or business

buccaneer intransitive verb

buccaneerish

ˌbə-kə-ˈnir-ish 

adjective

Synonyms

• pirate

Examples of buccaneer in a Sentence

buccaneers preyed upon treasure-laden ships in the Caribbean for nearly three hundred years

Recent Examples on the Web

The conference curated a world of coming wonders for several hundred C-suite buccaneers who had paid up to fifty thousand dollars apiece to update their mental models and investment portfolios. —Tad Friend, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025

Over on the fall/winter 2025 runways, Ralph Lauren and Zimmermann took a more subtle approach via elegant knee-high leather boots with buccaneer buckle detailing and a slight scrunch. —Emma Spedding, Vogue, 24 July 2025

Guests may spot Rummy greeting buccaneers from his perch along the bar. —Megan Dubois, Southern Living, 14 July 2025

The buyout buccaneers of the 1980s were their own clients, bootstrapping their corporate takeovers until their sky-high returns lured in outside money. —Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 19 June 2025

Word History

Etymology

French boucanier woodsman, pirate (in the 17th century West Indies), from boucaner to smoke meat, from boucan wooden frame for smoking meat, from Tupi mokaʔẽ́, mbokaʔẽ́, from mo-, mbo- causative marker + kaʔẽ to be roasted, dried

First Known Use

1686, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for buccaneer

• auctioneer
• bandelier
• belvedere
• bombardier
• brigadier
• cavalier
• chandelier
• chanticleer
• chevalier
• commandeer
• disappear
• engineer

Kids Definition

buccaneer

noun

buc·​ca·​neer ˌbək-ə-ˈni(ə)r 

: pirate entry 1

Etymology

from French boucanier "hunter who smokes meat over a grill"

Word Origin

In the 17th century Frenchmen living off the land in the West Indies were known as boucaniers because they preserved meat by smoking it over a wooden grill. The grill was called a boucan, after the Brazilian Indigenous name for it. When some of these men took to the sea as pirates, the word boucanier continued to be applied to them, and was borrowed into English as buccaneer.