Definition of PIRATE

pirate

Meanings

Plural: pirates

Noun

  • someone who uses another person's words or ideas as if they were his own
  • someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation
  • a ship that is manned by pirates
  • A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns.
  • An armed ship or vessel that sails for the purpose of plundering other vessels.
  • One who breaks intellectual property laws by reproducing protected works without permission.
  • A bird which practises kleptoparasitism.
  • A kind of marble in children's games.

Verb

  • copy illegally; of published material
  • take arbitrarily or by force
  • To appropriate by piracy; to plunder at sea.
  • To create and/or sell an unauthorized copy of.
  • To knowingly obtain an unauthorized copy of.
  • To engage in piracy.
  • To entice an employee to switch from a competing company to one's own.

Adj

  • Illegally imitated or reproduced, said of a trademarked product or copyrighted work, or of the counterfeit itself.

Origin / Etymology

From Middle English pirate, pirat, pyrat, from Old French pirate, from Latin pīrāta (“pirate”), from Ancient Greek πειρατής (peiratḗs), from πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, attempt, plot”). Displaced native Old English wīċing, which was the word for both "pirate" and "viking".

Synonyms

bootlegger, buccaneer, commandeer, corsair, counterfeit, freebooter, highjack, hijack, literary pirate, picaroon, pirate, pirate ship, pirated, plagiariser, plagiarist, plagiarize, plagiarizer, raider, reaver, sea rat, sea robber, sea rover, sea-robber

Scrabble Score: 8

pirate is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
pirate is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
pirate is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 9

pirate is a valid Words With Friends word