freebooter
Americannoun
noun
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a person, such as a pirate, living from plunder
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informal a person, esp an itinerant, who seeks pleasure, wealth, etc, without responsibility
Etymology
Origin of freebooter
1560–70; Anglicization of Dutch vrijbuiter, equivalent to vrij free + buit booty 1 + -er -er 1
Explanation
A freebooter is a looter or raider. Freebooters are pirates. Originally, freebooters were pirates: roaming scoundrels who sailed the seas in search of spoils or plunder. In other words, freebooters robbed other ships. The term is now also used for people who steal in other settings. Freebooters, in any case, are robbers. The booty may be free for them, but they came by it through theft.
Vocabulary lists containing freebooter
"The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving
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Oedipus at Colonus
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Killers of the Flower Moon
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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.
What the freebooter gains is attention, whether in the form of likes, shares, or new followers for its Facebook page.
From Slate • Jul. 8, 2015
In 1847 a Portuguese freebooter and slave trader named Allen Vince sued him for a $200 debt, got a judgment against the land.
From Time Magazine Archive
In its policy of getting along with the powers that be, Long Island's fabulously successful harness track, Roosevelt Raceway, would never dream of turning down an influential freebooter.
From Time Magazine Archive
To be sure, Annie is a part-time smuggler and full-time freebooter.
From Time Magazine Archive
The prosecutor Roy St. Lewis called Hale “the ruthless freebooter of death.”
From "Killers of the Flower Moon" by David Grann
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.
