ROBBER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does robber mean? 

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

1. a thief who steals from someone by threatening violence

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• ROBBER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A thief who steals from someone by threatening violence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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

stealer; thief (a criminal who takes property belonging to someone else with the intention of keeping it or selling it)

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

bank robber (a robber of banks)

mugger (a robber who takes property by threatening or performing violence on the person who is robbed (usually on the street))

Derivation:

rob (take something away by force or without the consent of the owner)

 Context examples 

“The old woman is right,” said the robbers, and they ceased looking for the finger and sat down.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

The robber must have just burst open the door—the lock has been forced—when William came upon him.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

These creatures were not even robbers.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This must have been well-known to the robbers, or they would not have acted as they did.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

May God smite me if I fail to smite thee, thou French robber, with thy wife and thy child and all that is under thy castle roof!

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I know that, but for the mercy of God, I might easily have been, for any care that was taken of me, a little robber or a little vagabond.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Neither robbers nor tempests befriended them, nor one lucky overturn to introduce them to the hero.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

It will be wise so to do, was her answer: this neighbourhood is as quiet as any I know, and I never heard of the hall being attempted by robbers since it was a house; though there are hundreds of pounds' worth of plate in the plate-closet, as is well known.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I dined on what they called "robber steak"—bits of bacon, onion, and beef, seasoned with red pepper, and strung on sticks and roasted over the fire, in the simple style of the London cat's meat!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I was a young chap then, hot-blooded and reckless, ready to turn my hand at anything; I got among bad companions, took to drink, had no luck with my claim, took to the bush, and in a word became what you would call over here a highway robber.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)