Meanings
- uncountablePiracy or plundering.
In a short time freebooting assumed all of the routine of a regular business.
1921, Howard Pyle, Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates2 more examples
The Haghar are well known, even in Europe, for their freebooting propensities.
1853, James Richardson, Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2Why do you now refuse to protect your own highway into the Interior, […] and thus put an end to the freebooting of the Boers, and of our own people who joined them?
1900, Josephine Elizabeth Butler, Native Races and the War - uncountablecomputingSoftware piracy, or stealing or unauthorized rehosting of digital content.
Oh those freebooters taking our videos! I'm sick of it. Freebooting, you know, it's a serious issue!
2014, Brady Haran, Hello Internet: Episode #5: Freebooting3 more examples
Your recent issue about the problems of electronic software piracy or "freebooting" — if you will — was excellent and timely. However, I wonder if both sides have failed to understand the social significance of the struggle.
1982, InfoWorld, volume 4, number 15, page 30Freebooting of broadcast satellite signals may exist privately, but we have no evidence of illegal signal capture being commercialized any longer.
1994, United States. Congress. Senate, Country reports on economic policy and trade practicesMany felt that the software companies are really the ones who ought to be called pirates. […] No wonder, the reader said, that customers are tempted to a little freebooting of their own.
1998, InfoWorld, volume 20, page 79
- not comparableEngaged in piracy or plunder
In one respect, as I hinted above, it is only too good, so sure of success, I mean, that you are no longer secure of any respect to your property in our freebooting America.
1843, Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Correspondence of Thomas Carlyle and Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1834-1872, Vol II.
- gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of freeboot
Origin
From freebooter (“a type of pirate”).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch vrijbuiterij
- vrijbuiterijpiracy or plundering
Polish korsarstwo, korsarka
- korsarstwopiracy or plundering
- korsarkapiracy or plundering
- kaperkapiracy or plundering
- łupieżpiracy or plundering
- korsarskiengaged in piracy or plunder
- kaperskiengaged in piracy or plunder
- łupieżczyengaged in piracy or plunder
Spanish piratería
- pirateríapiracy or plundering
Cite this entry
freebooting. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/freebooting
“freebooting.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/freebooting. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “freebooting,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/freebooting.
Source: freebooting on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.