Advertisement

Advertisement

View synonyms for bandit

bandit

[ ban-dit ]

noun

, plural ban·dits or (Rare) ban·dit·ti [ban-, dit, -ee].
  1. a robber, especially a member of a gang or marauding band.

    Synonyms: desperado, brigand

  2. an outlaw or highwayman.

    Synonyms: desperado, brigand

  3. Informal.
    1. a person who takes unfair advantage of others, as a merchant who overcharges; swindler; cheat.
    2. a vendor, cab driver, etc., who operates a business or works without a required license or permit, and without observing the usual rules or practices.
  4. Military Informal. an enemy aircraft, especially an attacking fighter.


bandit

/ ˈbændɪt /

noun

  1. a robber, esp a member of an armed gang; brigand
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


Discover More

Derived Forms

  • ˈbanditry, noun
Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of bandit1

First recorded in 1585–95; earlier bandetto, plural banditti, from Italian banditi “outlaws,” plural of bandito “proscribed,” past participle of bandire “banish, exile, announce publicly,” from Gothic bandwjan “to make a sign, indicate” ( band 1 ) with verb suffix -ire, from Latin -īre
Discover More

Word History and Origins

Origin of bandit1

C16: from Italian bandito , literally: banished man, from bandire to proscribe, from bando edict, ban 1
Discover More

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms
  1. make out like a bandit, Slang. to be extremely successful; profit greatly:

    The early investors in the company have made out like bandits.

Discover More

Example Sentences

These campaigns can also result in consultants and vendors “making out like bandits,” Krumholz told me.

In 2016, a year when bandits made off with more than 1,500 hives, a fellow apiculturist called the cops after spotting Olivarez’s branding on boxes that had appeared suddenly four counties south of his usual stomping grounds.

If there’s a theme to Navalny’s oeuvre, it is that Russia’s modern kleptocracy is the offspring of an unholy matrimony between former mid-level KGB officers and a post-Soviet nomenklatura of bandits in business suits.

From Time

Women Are at the Forefront of Nigeria’s Police Brutality ProtestsMidenda says that SARS did have some early successes in capturing armed bandits.

From Time

Some of those improvements were driven by Bloomberg Media’s use of ABBA, as well as a multi-armed bandit method, which optimizes between multiple choices in real time, to optimize campaigns in shorter timeframes.

From Digiday

She stormed off next door, where the business owner tried to chase Wislon off before the bandit squeezed off a round.

One bandit came in the night to rob the couple, and shot at his wife when she exited the house.

I had my first taste of Tetra Pak wine from a neon green package labeled “Bandit” a couple of years ago.

After all, who has made out like a bandit since the 2008 economic collapse?

A bandit tried to rob them, and they shot and killed him and went back to work Monday morning as if nothing had happened.

He lived for some time as a bandit, robbing the subjects of the King of Gath, who had given him shelter.

Five years of warfare and its sequence—the bandit community—had devastated the provinces.

They had no doubts that if the bandit was still in the cave, the three men would find him and bring him back to face justice.

She had come to the part in their escape when she stopped and fired at the bandit when Janet voiced her opinion.

Clovis made himself master of the city through the treason of Saint Remy, who baptized that crowned bandit at Rheims.

Advertisement

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.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


bandingbandito