ROBBERY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does robbery mean? 

• ROBBERY (noun)
  The noun ROBBERY has 2 senses:

1. larceny by threat of violence

2. plundering during riots or in wartime

  Familiarity information: ROBBERY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ROBBERY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Larceny by threat of violence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

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

larceny; stealing; theft; thievery; thieving (the act of taking something from someone unlawfully)

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

armed robbery; heist; holdup; stickup (robbery at gunpoint)

caper; job (a crime (especially a robbery))

dacoity; dakoity (robbery by a gang of armed dacoits)

heist; rip-off (the act of stealing)

highjacking; hijacking (robbery of a traveller or vehicle in transit or seizing control of a vehicle by the use of force)

highway robbery (robbery of travellers on or near a public road)

rolling (the act of robbing a helpless person)

Derivation:

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

Sense 2

Meaning:

Plundering during riots or in wartime

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

looting; robbery

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

pillage; pillaging; plundering (the act of stealing valuable things from a place)

 Context examples 

Robbery does not appear to have been the motive of the crime, for there had been no attempt to remove the valuable contents of the room.

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

No, there was no attempt at robbery.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And at last took the blame upon himself, added my aunt; and wrote me a mad letter, charging himself with robbery, and wrong unheard of.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was at once clear that a daring and gigantic robbery had been committed.

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

You infer that she may have gone out to tell her sweetheart, and that the two may have planned the robbery.

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

The bird complained to the dog of this bare-faced robbery, but nothing he said was of any avail, for the dog answered that he found false credentials on the sausage, and that was the reason his life had been forfeited.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

It was nothing less than robbery, he concluded—a cold-blooded steal; while he starved, he was pilfered of his merchandise, of his goods, the sale of which was the sole way of getting bread to eat.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Some were undone by lawsuits; others spent all they had in drinking, whoring, and gaming; others fled for treason; many for murder, theft, poisoning, robbery, perjury, forgery, coining false money, for committing rapes, or sodomy; for flying from their colours, or deserting to the enemy; and most of them had broken prison; none of these durst return to their native countries, for fear of being hanged, or of starving in a jail; and therefore they were under the necessity of seeking a livelihood in other places.

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

I understand that there was no sign of robbery?

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Have you any reason to suspect robbery?

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