PIRATE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... confirmed bath-lifter," interjected Binnie. "Yesterday morning my batman prepared me a tub, and while he was fetching me along your hulking pirate boosted out my sponge and towels and installed your lily-white self in it. You were so busy wallowing in my hot water that you never heard my protests on the door. You really must curb his buccaneering ...

— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, March 24, 1920. • Various

... prosperity of the country, the abundance of gold and of accumulated riches, whether cattle or corn, ornaments or richly dyed stuffs, red and purple and blue. Word seems to have been carried to the wild hills and fiords of frozen Scandinavia that here was booty in abundance, and the pirate hordes came ...

— Ireland, Historic and Picturesque • Charles Johnston

... The employing boss was what is now called hard-boiled. He was a Cuban, with the face of a cutthroat. Doubtless he was the descendant of the Spanish-English buccaneers who used to prowl the Caribbean Sea and make headquarters at New Orleans. Beside this pirate ancestry I'll bet he was a direct descendant of Simon Legree. He suspected that I couldn't do much in a dyking camp, so he swarmed down on me the second week I was there and ordered me to quit the water-carrying job and handle a mule team and a scraper. ...

— The Iron Puddler • James J. Davis

... to his full height, and answered, with his eyes on the speakers, "We are free-born men on this island, your Excellency. We did not come to Tynwald to learn order from the grandson of a Spanish pirate, or freedom from the son ...

— The Manxman - A Novel - 1895 • Hall Caine

... tragedies in the present portion, commencing with Arixina in which figure Julius Caesar, Cassfelyn, and Cymbaline, and extending to Edwin and Elgiva: the titles of the intervening pieces are the Imperial Pirate and the Dragon King. There is much wild and beautiful romance in the diction, but we take the most attractive portion to be the lyrical portion, as the Chants, Dirges, and Choruses. We recommend them as models for the play-wrights who do such things for the acting ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 19. No. 534 - 18 Feb 1832 • Various

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