robber
Americannoun
Usage
What does robber mean? A robber is a person who robs—steals, especially by force or through threats of violence. In other words, a robber is someone who commits robbery. A robber can rob a person or a place, such as a house or business. A robber who robs a person on the street is often called a mugger. A person who robs a bank is called a bank robber and the act of doing this is called bank robbery. An armed robber is a person who commits armed robbery, which involves robbing a person or place while armed with a weapon. A robber is a kind of thief, which is a person who steals things. However, the word thief usually refers to a person who steals without anyone noticing, at least not when the theft is taking place. In contrast, a person who steals by using force, violence, or threats of force or violence would more likely be called a robber. The word rob can also be used in a kind of figurative way meaning to unfairly deprive someone of something, but robber is only used to refer to someone who robs in the literal sense. Example: Police have released sketches of the suspects in the hopes that someone can identify the bank robbers.
Synonym Usage
See thief.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of robber
First recorded in 1125–75; Middle English robbere, from Old French robere. See rob, -er 1
Explanation
A robber is someone who steals from another person. A bank robber might steal money from a teller by claiming to have a gun, while a robber baron is much more subtle. Robbery is the crime that robbers commit, taking someone's property or money by hurting them or threatening to hurt them. You might picture train robbers in an old Western movie, galloping away with their loot shooting their guns in the air. In the nineteenth century, Americans began using the term "robber baron" to mean wealthy, unscrupulous businessmen.
Vocabulary lists containing robber
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Drexel, a phenomenally wealthy and influential financier, wasn’t the most infamous of the Robber Barons by any means, and he is hardly a household name.
From Washington Post • Aug. 23, 2022
"Dress Me Up As a Robber" boasts an easygoing disco-sizzle vibe and flamenco guitar and pleasing falsetto vocals, while "What's That You're Doing?" is pure robo-funk thanks to guest Stevie Wonder.
From Salon • Apr. 30, 2022
Over the course of four decades, Schramm appeared in multiple Broadway productions, including The Acting Company’s 1975 repertory productions of “The Three Sisters,” “The Time of Your Life,” “Edward II” and “The Robber Bridegroom.”
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 29, 2020
Like his contemporary, the Great Train Robber Bruce Reynolds, author of The Autobiography of a Thief, he writes with wit and self-knowledge.
From The Guardian • Aug. 7, 2019
"Robber bands!" cried the wool-dealers despairingly, starting up with fear.
From Wang the Ninth The Story of a Chinese Boy by Putnam Weale, B. L. (Bertram Lenox)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
