Dictionary Home » Dictionary Definitions » buccaneer

buccaneer

Listen See in Thesaurus See in a sentence

The definition of buccaneer is a pirate or an sea adventurer along the Spanish coasts in the 17th century.

(noun)

An example of a buccaneer is Captain Hook.

Buccaneer means to act like a pirate.

(verb)

An example of to buccaneer is to act and dress like a pirate for Halloween.

See buccaneer in Webster's New World College Dictionary

noun

a pirate, or sea robber, esp. one who raided along the Spanish coasts of America in the 17th cent.

Origin: Fr boucanier, user of a boucan, native Brazilian grill for roasting meat; orig. applied to Fr hunters of wild oxen in Haiti

See buccaneer in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun

A pirate, especially one of the freebooters who preyed on Spanish shipping in the West Indies during the 17th century.
A ruthless speculator or adventurer.

Origin:

Origin: French boucanier

Origin: , from boucaner, to cure meat

Origin: , from boucan, barbecue frame

Origin: , of Tupian origin

Origin: ; akin to Tupi mukém, rack

Related Forms:

bucˌca·neerˈ verb

Word History: The Errol Flynn-like figure of the buccaneer pillaging the Spanish Main may seem less dashing if we realize that the term buccaneer corresponds to the word barbecuer. The first recorded use of the French word boucanier, which was borrowed into English, referred to a person on the islands of Hispaniola and Tortuga who hunted wild oxen and boars and smoked the meat in a barbecue frame known in French as a boucan. This French word came from a Tupi word meaning “a rack used for roasting or for storing things, or a racklike platform supporting a house.” The original barbecuers seem to have subsequently adopted a more remunerative way of life, piracy, which accounts for the new meaning given to the word. Buccaneer is recorded first in 1661 in its earlier sense in English; the sense we are familiar with is recorded in 1690.

Learn more about buccaneer

buccaneer synonyms

buccaneer in a sentence

buccaneer images