Privateer meaning

prī'və-tîr'
A ship privately owned and crewed but authorized by a government during wartime to attack and capture enemy vessels.
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The commander or one of the crew of such a ship.
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To sail as a privateer.
verb
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A privately owned and manned armed ship commissioned by a government in a war to attack and capture enemy ships, esp. merchant ships.
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A commander or crew member of a privateer.
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To sail as a privateer.
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(nautical) A privately owned warship that had official sanction to attack enemy ships and take possession of their cargo.
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An officer or any other member of the crew of such a ship.
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(motor racing) A private individual entrant into a race or competition who does not have the backing of a large, professional team.
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To function under official sanction permitting attacks on enemy shipping and seizing ship and cargo; to engage in government-sponsored piracy.
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Origin of privateer

From private +"Ž -eer, on the model of volunteer.

Sentence Examples

  • It was captured and plundered in 1 595 by the English privateer James Lancaster.

  • His ship fell into the hands of a French privateer and he was for some time a prisoner in France, but finally proceeded to London, where his proposal was considered without anything being decided.

  • The occupation of Monterey for a few hours by a Buenos Aires privateer (1818) was the only incident of actual war that California saw in all these years; and it, in truth, was a ridiculous episode, fit introduction to the bloodless play-wars, soon to be inaugurated in Californian politics.

  • He is said to have forced a British schooner, probably a privateer, which attacked him when on his way from Bordeaux to St Thomas, to strike, but he did not take possession.

  • He held Dover successfully through the darkest hour of John's fortunes; he brought back Kent to the allegiance of Henry III.; he completed the discomfiture of the French and their allies by the naval victory which he gained over Eustace the Monk, the noted privateer and admiral of Louis, in the Straits of Dover (Aug.

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Words near privateer in the Dictionary