to take something from (someone) by unlawful force or threat of violence; steal from.
to deprive (someone) of some right or something legally due.
They robbed her of her inheritance.
to plunder or rifle (a house, shop, etc.).
to deprive of something unjustly or injuriously.
The team was robbed of a home run hitter when the umpire called it a foul ball. The shock robbed him of his speech.
Mining. to remove ore or coal from (a pillar).
(tr) to take something from (someone) illegally, as by force or threat of violence
to plunder (a house, shop, etc)
(tr) to deprive unjustly
to be robbed of an opportunity
What does rob mean? To rob is to steal, especially by force or through threats of violence. A person who robs is called a robber, and the act of robbing is called robbery. A robber can rob a person or a place, such as a house or business. The act of robbing a person on the street is often called mugging. The act of robbing a bank is called bank robbery and a person who does it is called a bank robber. Armed robbery involves robbing a person or place while armed with a weapon. Rob and steal are often used interchangeably in terms of their general meaning, but their use within a sentence often differs. The word rob often focuses on the victim of the theft (whether it’s a person or a place), whereas steal often focuses on what has been stolen. So you can rob a bank, a person, or a house, whereas you steal money, diamonds, or cars. A bank robber doesn’t steal banks (unless they’re Carmen Sandiego, maybe)—they steal money from banks. However, the word rob is sometimes followed by the word of and the thing that’s been taken, as in She robbed me of thousands of dollars! The word rob can also be used in a kind of figurative way meaning to unfairly deprive someone of something, especially something abstract or intangible. If someone prevents you from doing something, you can say they robbed you of the chance to do it. Death is said to rob us of our loved ones. If someone loses a competition not because they were fairly defeated but because of some technicality, they might say “I was robbed!”Unrelatedly, the name Rob is short for Robert. Example: The suspect is accused of robbing seven banks during a three-month period.
Rob, rifle, sack refer to seizing possessions that belong to others. Rob is the general word for taking possessions by unlawful force or violence: to rob a bank, a house, a train. A term with a more restricted meaning is rifle, to make a thorough search for what is valuable or worthwhile, usually within a small space: to rifle a safe. On the other hand, sack is a term for robbery on a huge scale during war; it suggests destruction accompanying pillage, and often includes the indiscriminate massacre of civilians: to sack a town or district.
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English robben, from Old French robber, from Germanic; compare Old High German roubōn. See reave 1
To rob is to steal something using violence (or the threat of violence). A criminal might rob a bank by pretending to have a weapon. Use the verb rob when you're talking about a crime — like when a bandit robs a train in the movies, or an outlaw robs the general store on TV. You can also use it to mean "deprive," as in "Having to ride my bike to school is only going to rob me of my energy by the time I get there." Rob comes from the Old French rober, "rob, steal, or ransack."
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He made a full-speed tumbling catch in the right-field gap to rob Austin Wells of an extra-base hit.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
“All they do is rob us, even in the midst of a tragedy,” said retiree Vayamin Delgado, who said police looted her damaged home.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
He demonstrated strength and awareness to rob Tunisia captain Ellyes Skhiri and set up a goal for strike partner Viktor Gyokeres in the second half.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2026
In the bottom of the inning, Eli White made a sprinting catch on the warning track in right field to rob Max Muncy of extra bases.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 10, 2026
That was almost enough to rob his tongue of the sweetness of the frybread—it had almost robbed him of Harry.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Rob Bonta, attorney general of California, which is leading a coalition of 12 states which last week sued to block the deal, welcomed the agreement.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Getting to know the Slatesters behind the mic: Unwind with this casual conversation between What Next: TBD host Lizzie O’Leary and producer Rob Gunther.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026
Last fall there was a story about trading by Pennsylvania Rep. Rob Bresnahan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Rob Moulds, 57, from Birmingham, is visually impaired and uses a cane when walking.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
In fact, Rob was deliberately running other stories and links ahead of my columns, in order to get some information out before the site went down as readers rushed to respond.
From "Geeks: How Two Lost Boys Rode the Internet Out of Idaho" by Jon Katz
Also, giving properties as gifts, rather than as inheritances, robs them of their tax-advantaged step-up in basis.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 16, 2026
Its inscrutability to ordinary people is part of what robs the document of whatever power it may have had at a third the length.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
ALS, a progressive and terminal motor neuron disease, robs a person of the ability to move and, ultimately, to breathe, according to the Mayo Clinic.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
Humorous responses to rage bait, which depends on eliciting defensiveness that can be fed back into the outrage machine, robs it of oxygen.
From Salon ● Dec. 8, 2025
"But he does so for honorable reasons, to bring dishonest men to justice. He robs the robbers!"
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
They agreed that being exactly right all of the time wasn’t worth the misery of waiting so long to witness a goal—and then being robbed of that moment of ecstasy when it gets overturned.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Had the advent of intensive parenting robbed the holiday of its spark?
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
The Knicks winning the finals as fast as they did actually robbed the arena itself of a major spending event, a possibility that my colleagues Nate Wolf and Janet H. Cho pointed out last week.
From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026
But in his sentencing remarks, he explained: "it would not be unreasonable to conclude that Henry would have wanted his phone back, believing it had been stolen from him or that he had been robbed."
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
Two days were robbed from her life; two days she didn’t have to spare.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
Data-center titans buy huge amounts of memory at higher prices, robbing Apple of its leverage.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
All that fouling is hindering Brink’s development because it’s robbing her of important in-game reps — which she needs, foremost, to figure out how to stop fouling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2026
Now Spirit is gone, robbing us all of the airline likeliest to pester United, Delta, and American into lowering their prices more quickly once fuel prices go down.
From Slate ● May 12, 2026
Related inflation concerns could still keep the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates, he cautioned, robbing small caps and other interest-rate-sensitive stocks of a key source of support.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 9, 2026
I can’t think, the pain robbing me of whatever wit I possess.
From "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland
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.
