pirate 1 of 2

as in buccaneer
someone who engages in robbery of ships at sea Sir Francis Drake was a British pirate who preyed on Spanish ships with the connivance of Elizabeth I

Synonyms & Similar Words

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pirate

2 of 2

verb

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pirate
Noun
Blue category: These might adorn the arm of a sailor or even a pirate. Mark Joseph, Newsweek, 24 Feb. 2025 But a pirate has forgotten his hat, and the scene needs to be redone. John Bleasdale, Variety, 21 Feb. 2025
Verb
One recent study found that about 11% of U.S. adults admit to pirating live sports, TV or movies. Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 6 Jan. 2025 There’s a big difference between it being widely pirated in Israel and for people in New York who are not Jewish to watch it. Yasmeen Serhan, TIME, 10 Dec. 2024 See All Example Sentences for pirate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pirate
Noun
  • Which is not to say that Skeleton Crew, in success, couldn’t ever feature the interstellar buccaneer.
    Matt Webb Mitovich, TVLine, 15 Jan. 2025
  • Her approach is a clean break from the 19th-century tradition of American landscape art, in which de facto propagandists like Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Cole depicted land as radiant and virginal, the birthright of any colonial buccaneer drunk on Manifest Destiny.
    Jeremy Lybarger, ARTnews.com, 6 Jan. 2025
Verb
  • The area around the strait in the past has seen Iran seize commercial ships and purportedly launch attacks since President Donald Trump first unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.
    Graham Underwood, arkansasonline.com, 12 Mar. 2025
  • Both deals were first violated in 2014 when Putin seized Crimea and backed Russian separatist forces in the Donbas region.
    Caitlin McFall, Fox News, 12 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Riding a Yamaha as a privateer, Laninovich made two main events last season to become the oldest starter in Supercross history at the age of 40.
    Bill Center, San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Jan. 2025
  • There are privateers and those who spend smaller dollars, with some help of sponsors, but it is largely populated by multi-million-dollar teams; some have private chefs, massage therapists, a cadre of engineers, and a media contingent.
    Sue Mead, Popular Science, 13 Feb. 2025
Verb
  • New threat intelligence has confirmed that, across 2024, a total of 3.2 billion credentials were stolen.
    Davey Winder, Forbes, 18 Mar. 2025
  • She was accused of drugging both men in their hotel rooms and stealing from them, but the charges were dismissed because the victims did not want to testify in court, Colbert's attorney for those cases, Daniel Lippmann, told The Associated Press.
    Cara Tabachnick, CBS News, 18 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • After Columbus’s first footfall in the New World, Cuba fell prey to every manner of European freebooter.
    Jon Lee Anderson, Foreign Affairs, 14 Dec. 2021
  • There is widespread, cross-partisan public support for finally clamping down on these corporate freebooters.
    Prem Thakker, The New Republic, 23 Feb. 2023
Verb
  • This comes after authorities confiscated a deer that a Pennsylvania woman had been keeping as a pet earlier this year, as previously reported by PEOPLE.
    Kirsty Hatcher, People.com, 14 Mar. 2025
  • Others believe that their children are entitled to a decent lunch and complain when schools confiscate their child's food after ordering in.
    Annabelle Canela, Parents, 12 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • Freed from a Mediterranean Sea crowded with Ottoman fleets and North African corsairs, the Atlantic upstarts unleashed themselves on the world’s oceans.
    Jeremy Adelman, Foreign Affairs, 20 Apr. 2015
  • But the stealthy corsair, evading her pursuer, slipped to safety in Tripoli’s shallow harbor—and then, suddenly, disaster struck the Philadelphia.
    Mark G. Spencer, WSJ, 31 Jan. 2023
Verb
  • He’s minimized the walks, partly due to his willingness to use his curveball early in counts for strikes to get ahead and grab count leverage.
    Fabian Ardaya, The Athletic, 14 Mar. 2025
  • Oh my God, so amazing to grab that artist for Charlotte. ...
    Théoden Janes, Charlotte Observer, 13 Mar. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Pirate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pirate. Accessed 24 Mar. 2025.

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