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
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as in to seize
to take or make use of under a guise of authority but without actual right
using pirated software that was subject to copyright
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of pirate
Michael Gfoeller and David H. Rundell, Newsweek, 15 Jan. 2025
The video features their lead singer Michelle Zauner cross-dressed as a pirate, escaping from a castle, while singing a poetically devastating love song to his mermaid lover.
—Ana Osorno, Them, 15 Jan. 2025
Yasmeen Serhan, TIME, 10 Dec. 2024
In the 1990s, when the state purchased a package of satellite television channels and transmitted it from Hotel Habana Libre to surrounding hotels, technicians pirated the signal through makeshift antennas.
—Laura-Zoë Humphreys and Daymar Valdés Frigola / Made By History, TIME, 6 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for pirate 
Noun
The update will also add new Build Buy items, which include a pirate ship.
—Michael Gfoeller and David H. Rundell, Newsweek, 15 Jan. 2025
The video features their lead singer Michelle Zauner cross-dressed as a pirate, escaping from a castle, while singing a poetically devastating love song to his mermaid lover.
—Ana Osorno, Them, 15 Jan. 2025
Verb
The film has already been widely pirated in Israel.
—Yasmeen Serhan, TIME, 10 Dec. 2024
In the 1990s, when the state purchased a package of satellite television channels and transmitted it from Hotel Habana Libre to surrounding hotels, technicians pirated the signal through makeshift antennas.
—Laura-Zoë Humphreys and Daymar Valdés Frigola / Made By History, TIME, 6 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for pirate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pirate
Noun
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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
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Sporting a goatee, tricorn hat, purple vest and pantaloons, the bad-news buccaneer ambushed the victim near the station’s turnstiles, punching him repeatedly before making off with his AirPods and sneakers.—
Colin Mixson,
New York Daily News,
1 Nov. 2024
Verb
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When the bride steps away, other women can seize the moment to give the groom a friendly peck.—
Boutayna Chokrane,
Vogue,
4 Feb. 2025
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When Yardley submitted the manuscript to Macmillan in February 1933, a U.S. marshal seized and impounded it under the Espionage Act of 1917, which prohibited taking secret documents.—
Peter Zablocki,
Smithsonian Magazine,
4 Feb. 2025
Noun
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That victory marked the only time a Prancing Horse entered by a privateer, in this case Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team, took top honors at Circuit de la Sarthe’s iconic race.—
Viju Mathew,
Robb Report,
25 Jan. 2025
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Often, her passengers walk through a world where privateers and pirates are closer to their cabins than to Neverland.—
Joe Sills,
Forbes,
19 Jan. 2025
Verb
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Petey the Cat abandons Lil Petey on the street, and Grampa Petey is condescending and steals from his son.—
Lynnette Nicholas,
Parents,
29 Jan. 2025
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UnitedHealth Group now said hackers stole records of about 190 million people in last February's attack on its Change Healthcare subsidiary.—
Ken Alltucker,
USA TODAY,
29 Jan. 2025
Noun
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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
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There is widespread, cross-partisan public support for finally clamping down on these corporate freebooters.—
Prem Thakker,
The New Republic,
23 Feb. 2023
Verb
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His service items, including his badge and firearm, were also confiscated.—
Barbara A. Perry,
Newsweek,
28 Jan. 2025
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We were interrogated, the contents of our suitcase was kind of picked through and things were confiscated.—
Nick Vivarelli,
Variety,
22 Jan. 2025
Noun
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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
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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
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Marvel Spider-Man's Car and Doc Ock Building Set Don’t forget to grab a Valentine’s Gift for the little one in your life.—
Mia Huelsbeck,
People.com,
6 Feb. 2025
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Also using a franchise model, the company operates a network of almost 10,000 stores across China, hoping to grab consumer attention with as many storefronts as possible, according to its prospectus.—
Yue Wang,
Forbes,
5 Feb. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Pirate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pirate. Accessed 9 Feb. 2025.
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