PIRATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Pirate

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/pˈaɪrət/ Listen

noun

Pirate n.

A robber on the high seas; one who by open violence takes the property of another on the high seas; especially, one who makes it his business to cruise for robbery or plunder; a freebooter on the seas; also, one who steals in a harbor.

An armed ship or vessel which sails without a legal commission, for the purpose of plundering other vessels on the high seas.

One who infringes the law of copyright, or publishes the work of an author without permission.

Pirate perch (Zool.), a fresh-water percoid fish of the United States (Aphredoderus Sayanus). It is of a dark olive color, speckled with blackish spots.

verb

Pirate v. t. To publish, as books or writings, without the permission of the author. "They advertised they would pirate his edition."

Pirate v. i. (past & past part. pirated; pres. part. pirating) To play the pirate; to practice robbery on the high seas.

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Etymology of 'Pirate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Pirate" Quotes from Famous Books

... noticed the Tasso fort, built by the English in 1695. The next account is by Mr. Surveyor Smith, [Footnote: He is mentioned in the last chapter.] who says 'it is not certain when the English became masters of Sierra Leone, which they possessed unmolested until Roberts the pirate took it in 1720.' Between 1785 and 1787 Lieutenant John Matthews, R.N., resided here, and left full particulars concerning the export slave-trade, apparently the only business carried on ...

— To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II - A Personal Narrative • Richard Francis Burton and Verney Lovett Cameron

... substances ignite spontaneously is explained by chemic phenomena, the conditions of which do not exist in the human frame. Watkins in speaking of the inflammability of the human body remarks that on one occasion he tried to consume the body of a pirate given to him by a U. S. Marshal. He built a rousing fire and piled wood on all night, and had not got the body consumed by the forenoon of the following day. Quite a feasible reason for supposed spontaneous human combustion is to be found in several cases quoted ...

— Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine • George M. Gould

... forced to abandon his search. And this man Raleigh captured, and from him extorted his secrets, when he sailed to discover and conquer El Dorado for Queen Elizabeth, having in his company Jacob Whiddon, the English pirate, and George Gifford who was ...

— Murder Point - A Tale of Keewatin • Coningsby Dawson

... May, Lulu, and Bertha would have translated it thus: "our old ginghams and our own way;" while Dinah, if asked, would have defined "comfort" as having the kitchen "clar'd up" after a successful bake, and being free to sit down, darn stockings, and read the "Illustrated Pirate's Manual," a newspaper she much affected on account of the blood-thirstiness of its pictures. None of these various explanations of the word mean the same thing, you see. And the drollest part is that no one ...

— Nine Little Goslings • Susan Coolidge

... course as near as we could to the coast of France, for fear of the enemy. As we sailed along, we met a vessel of Ostend, who complained to our admiral, that a French privateer had robbed him that very morning; whereupon we endeavoured to pursue the said pirate; but our labour was in vain, not being able to ...

— The Pirates of Panama • A. O. (Alexandre Olivier) Exquemelin

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