privateer
[prahy-vuh-teer]
- an armed ship that is privately owned and manned, commissioned by a government to fight or harass enemy ships.
- privateersman.
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- to cruise as a privateer.
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Origin of privateer
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for privateering
Historical Examples
The gallantry of privateering was degenerating into the bloody brutality of piracy.
Plotting in Pirate SeasFrancis Rolt-Wheeler
A specimen American privateering commission may be seen in doc.
Most narratives of privateering or of piracy are found in the form of depositions.
These were the essential documents of a privateering voyage.
Seamen—you witness—were brutes, in these merry days of privateering.
Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the SeaCharles H. L. Johnston
privateer
- an armed, privately owned vessel commissioned for war service by a government
- Also called: privateersman a commander or member of the crew of a privateer
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- a competitor, esp in motor racing, who is privately financed rather than sponsored by a manufacturer
- (intr) to serve as a privateer
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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
Word Origin and History for privateering
privateer
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper