picaroon
Americannoun
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a rogue, vagabond, thief, or brigand.
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a pirate or corsair.
verb (used without object)
noun
Etymology
Origin of picaroon
1615–25; < Spanish picarón, augmentative of pícaro picaro
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.
"Better than I did," says I, speaking on impulse, "for sure you are the strangest picaroon that ever cheated the gallows."
From Black Bartlemy's Treasure by Farnol, Jeffery
Nares quotes several instances of "picaro" and "picaroon" from our early writers.
From A Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 2 by Bullen, A. H. (Arthur Henry)
He, the picaroon, companion of rogues and small marauders, had seen many and diverse love affairs.
From Treasure and Trouble Therewith A Tale of California by Bonner, Geraldine
In case you may not know, a picaroon is like a single-bladed ax on a regular ax handle, except most of the ax blade is cut away, leaving only a pick instead of a blade.
From The Life of Me; an autobiography by Johnson, Clarence Edgar
On the way from Genoa to Messina Irving's vessel was boarded by a piratical picaroon.
From Washington Irving by Boynton, Henry Walcott
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.
