privateer
Americannoun
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an armed ship that is privately owned and manned, commissioned by a government to fight or harass enemy ships.
verb (used without object)
noun
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an armed, privately owned vessel commissioned for war service by a government
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Also called: privateersman. a commander or member of the crew of a privateer
verb
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a competitor, esp in motor racing, who is privately financed rather than sponsored by a manufacturer
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(intr) to serve as a privateer
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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privateersimple
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privateerssimple
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have privateeredperfect
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has privateeredperfect
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am privateeringprogressive
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are privateeringprogressive
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is privateeringprogressive
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have been privateeringperfect progressive
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has been privateeringperfect progressive
Past
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privateeredsimple
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had privateeredperfect
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was privateeringprogressive
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were privateeringprogressive
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had been privateeringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of privateer
Explanation
Long ago, a privately-owned ship used during wartime was known as a privateer. Often the captain and crew of such a ship were also called privateers. The term privateer is sometimes used interchangeably with "pirate," and in fact these independent sailors frequently acted as pirates, looting and seizing other seagoing vessels for their own benefit. Originally, the term designated ships that were commissioned during wartime by a government, so they could aid in fighting the enemy at sea. The word comes from the phrase "private man of war," and is modeled after "volunteer" and "buccaneer."
Vocabulary lists containing privateer
Words Every Pirate Should Know
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Chapter 6: The American Revolution
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Torpedoed
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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.
See Examples For:
The game follows Kenway, also from Swansea, as he sails to the Caribbean as a privateer looking for wealth, and evolves into a pirate, then assassin.
From BBC ● Jul. 8, 2026
Sir Francis Drake was an English privateer, sailing and seizing stuff on behalf of the queen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2025
His father, Jan Jansen, a Dutch privateer, was captured by one of the Moorish states in 1618.
From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2019
It was here that the White Lion, a 160-ton English privateer ship, landed at what was then known as Point Comfort.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 14, 2019
“Just so we won’t have any trouble. If a French privateer sees us, we’ll look so dangerous the privateer will crowd sail and run!”
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
The private security forces that some shippers engage today to prevent piracy could do the work of privateers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
She either became a privateer herself, taking to the Mediterranean Sea to attack Spanish holdings such as Gibraltar, or she licensed privateers to attack Spain in her name.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2024
In theory, pirates plunder and pillage outside the law, while corsairs were privateers regulated by authorities.
From National Geographic ● Jan. 11, 2024
The privateers were sponsored by the state, and set a ransom of 500 Guineas for Capt Lambton who was sailing The Stephenson from Bristol to Newcastle at the time.
From BBC ● May 17, 2023
Genêt’s first action in the United States was to hire American privateers, privately owned and manned ships, to attack and plunder British ships in the name of his government.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
An 1856 treaty purported to ban privateering, but the U.S. refused to sign.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
The Protestant queen wanted colonies that would act as an ideological counterweight to Spanish Catholicism in the Americas and provide a base of operations for privateering expeditions that would raid Spanish shipping.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022
But secession slashed tariff receipts by eliminating busy Southern ports and by launching a fleet of Confederate privateering vessels on the seas.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2022
In privateering and blockade-runner cases involving the seizure of neutral and Confederate vessels, for example, the court did not defer to the executive’s views.
From Slate ● Jan. 8, 2019
In 1619, the first Africans arrived in the Virginia colony on a privateering ship.
From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone
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.
