BUCCANEER

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does buccaneer mean? 

• BUCCANEER (noun)
  The noun BUCCANEER has 1 sense:

1. someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation

  Familiarity information: BUCCANEER used as a noun is very rare.

• BUCCANEER (verb)
  The verb BUCCANEER has 1 sense:

1. live like a buccaneer

  Familiarity information: BUCCANEER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BUCCANEER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

buccaneer; pirate; sea robber; sea rover

Hypernyms ("buccaneer" is a kind of...):

despoiler; freebooter; looter; pillager; plunderer; raider; spoiler (someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buccaneer"):

Barbary pirate; corsair (a pirate along the Barbary Coast)

sea king (a Viking pirate chief)

Instance hyponyms:

Jean Laffite; Jean Lafitte; Laffite; Lafitte (French pirate who aided the United States in the War of 1812 and received an official pardon for his crimes (1780-1826))

Henry Morgan; Morgan; Sir Henry Morgan (a Welsh buccaneer who raided Spanish colonies in the West Indies for the English (1635-1688))

Bartholomew Roberts; Roberts (a Welsh pirate credited with having taken more than 400 ships (1682-1722))

Blackbeard; Edward Teach; Edward Thatch; Teach; Thatch (an English pirate who operated in the Caribbean and off the Atlantic coast of North America (died in 1718))

Derivation:

buccaneer (live like a buccaneer)

• BUCCANEER (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Live like a buccaneer

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "buccaneer" is one way to...):

live (lead a certain kind of life; live in a certain style)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

buccaneer (someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation)

 Context examples 

But, indeed, from what I saw, all these buccaneers were as callous as the sea they sailed on.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“And so,” he said, gaily, “we abandon this buccaneer life tomorrow, do we?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was a sea-fitting for the buccaneers and pirates of by-gone years.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But The Hornet was run by a set of clean-shaven, strapping young men, frank buccaneers who robbed everything and everybody, not excepting one another.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I had several men who died in my ship of calentures, so that I was forced to get recruits out of Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, where I touched, by the direction of the merchants who employed me; which I had soon too much cause to repent: for I found afterwards, that most of them had been buccaneers.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

But our best hope, it was decided, was to kill off the buccaneers until they either hauled down their flag or ran away with the HISPANIOLA.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

As I did so, I could hear hails coming and going between the old buccaneer and his comrades, and this sound of danger lent me wings.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

There lay the schooner, clear at last from buccaneers and ready for our own men to board and get to sea again.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“Wot's wot?” repeated one of the buccaneers in a deep growl.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The buccaneers remained rooted to the ground, their eyes starting from their heads.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)