pirate

American  

[pahy-ruht] / ˈpaɪ rət /

noun

• pirates
  plural

1. a person who robs or commits illegal violence at sea or on the shores of the sea.

   Synonyms:

   plunderer, corsair, buccaneer, freebooter

2. a ship used by such persons.

3. any plunderer, predator, etc..

   confidence men, slumlords, and other pirates.

4. a person who uses or reproduces the work or invention of another without authorization.

5. Also called pirate stream.  Geology. a stream that diverts into its own flow the headwaters of another stream, river, etc.

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verb (used with object)

• pirates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pirated,
  past participle,  past
• pirating
  present participle

1. to commit piracy upon; plunder; rob.

2. to take by piracy.

   to pirate gold.

3. to use or reproduce (a book, an invention, etc.) without authorization or legal right.

   to pirate hit records.

4. to take or entice away for one's own use.

   Our competitor is trying to pirate our best salesman.

verb (used without object)

• pirates,
  present (3rd person singular)
• pirated,
  past participle,  past
• pirating
  present participle

1. to commit or practice piracy.

pirate British  

/ ˈpaɪrɪt /

noun

1. a person who commits piracy

2. 1. a vessel used by pirates

   2. ( as modifier )

      a pirate ship

3. a person who illicitly uses or appropriates someone else's literary, artistic, or other work

4. 1. a person or group of people who broadcast illegally

   2. ( as modifier )

      a pirate radio station

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verb

1. (tr) to use, appropriate, or reproduce (artistic work, ideas, etc) illicitly

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• piratelike
  adjective
• piratic
  adjective
• piratical
  adjective
• unpirated
  adjective
• unpiratical
  adjective
• piratically
  adverb
• unpiratically
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• pirates
  plural

Participles

• pirating
  present
• pirated
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• pirate
  simple
• pirates
  simple
• have pirated
  perfect
• has pirated
  perfect
• am pirating
  progressive
• are pirating
  progressive
• is pirating
  progressive
• have been pirating
  perfect progressive
• has been pirating
  perfect progressive

Past

• pirated
  simple
• had pirated
  perfect
• was pirating
  progressive
• were pirating
  progressive
• had been pirating
  perfect progressive

Future

• will pirate
  simple
• will have pirated
  perfect
• will be pirating
  progressive
• will have been pirating
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of pirate

1250–1300; Middle English < Latin pīrāta < Greek peirātḗs, equivalent to peirā- , variant stem of peirân to attack + -tēs agent noun suffix

Explanation

Yarg, matey! A cartoon pirate wears an eye patch, three-cornered hat, billowy shirt, and tall black boots. In real life, a pirate just boards ships and robs them of cargo, valuables, and money, often while wearing regular boring clothes. Pirates have been around since humans have been shipping valuable goods by boat across oceans. You can also use pirate as a verb to describe what these robbers do. Today, in addition to traditional pirates, there are pirates who use digital creative material, like books, movies, games, and music, without paying for it. If you pirate a movie, you make a copy and sell it illegally. The Greek root of pirate is peirates, "one who attacks."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

pirate pirates pirated pirating

She was checking people in on the pier for a separate boat tour to Sazan on a replica galleon that advertises the opportunity to “be a pirate for a day.”

From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026

The region had recorded no more than a handful of pirate attacks a year since 2013, and five in 2025.

From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026

Apparently, a lot of people pirate his films so they can be completists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026

You can channel your inner pirate in this Idaho lakefront home.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026

I put us aboard a pirate ship in the middle of terrible storm.

From "Amari and the Night Brothers" by B.B. Alston

Christopher and Anya’s adventures unspool at a breathless pace as they hop from island to island, dueling with pirates, trespassing among giants and competing in a deadly street race featuring some of Glimouria’s nastier creatures.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

McDonald’s latest Happy Meal collaboration unites the anime pirates of One Piece with Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob SquarePants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

Although fictional, the game stars real characters such as the infamous English pirate Blackbeard, and other pirates including Mary Read and Anne Bonny.

From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026

It was definitely not cheap paying off these pirates, whether it was ransoms or tariffs.

From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026

Alexander jumped to his feet and assumed the wide, bow-legged stance of a sea captain that he often used when playing pirates.

From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood

The biggest players in Silicon Valley are building data centers to more efficiently run copyright-infringement machines built on terabytes of pirated material.

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026

Due to its global popularity, football has been found to be pirated at an "industrial scale", according to analysts.

From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026

The cyber teams found that some of the ships are running pirated software for business- management and navigation purposes that is loaded with malware.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 15, 2026

On one balcony, a recording of Nina Simone’s soulful 1965 rendition of the spiritual “Sinnerman” is set over pirated archival footage of the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War protests.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 2026

Mary Anne searched her purse for a Kleenex, but pulled out instead a teaspoon pirated from her mother’s silver service.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy

The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday on whether internet service providers should be held liable for the online pirating of copyrighted music by their users.

From Barron's ● Dec. 1, 2025

Sony says it repeatedly flagged IP addresses—i.e., digital addresses—to Cox that it claimed were pirating music files.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 27, 2025

Alsup found the usage to be “exceedingly transformative” and “a fair use,” though the company might have broken the law by pirating a large portion of its source material.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2025

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Two men who helped run the once wildly popular pirating website Megaupload were each sentenced by a New Zealand court on Thursday to more than two years in prison.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 15, 2023

In this moment, the confident Lala seems flustered, almost like a celebrity pirate had just complimented her pirating.

From "Kwame Crashes the Underworld" by Craig Kofi Farmer

Related Words

• raider