pirate

plural pirates · alternative obsolete pyrate

1. A criminal who plunders at sea; commonly attacking merchant vessels, though often pillaging port towns.

   You should be cautious due to the Somali pirates.

   Synonyms: buccaneer, corsair, sea-robber

2. An armed ship or vessel that sails for the purpose of plundering other vessels.

   The third day out a pirate (Terebinthian by her rig) overhauled us, but when she saw us well armed she stood off after some shooting of arrows on either part—

   1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

   1 more example

   How did you do it? Have you searched for hidden treasure, or discovered a pole, or done time on a pirate, or flown the Channel, or what? Where is the glamour of romance? How did you get it?

   1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London; New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC

3. broadlyOne who breaks intellectual property laws by reproducing protected works without permission.

   And Gnutella, Freenet and other pirate tools will offer plunderings beyond Fanning's fantasies.

   2001, unidentified insider, quoted in John Alderman, Sonic Boom: Napster, MP3, and the New Pioneers of Music, Da Capo Press, page 178

   2 more examples

   They had watches that said Gucci or Rolex on them even though it was obvious they'd come straight here from some pirate factory in China.

   2004, David Lubar, Dunk, page 20

   If we untangle the claim that technology has turned Johnny Teenager into a pirate, what turns out to be fueling it is the idea that if Johnny Teenager were to share his unauthorized copy with two million of his closest friends the effect on a record company would be pretty similar to the effect of some CD factory's creating two million CDs and selling them cheap.

   2008, Martha Vicinus, Caroline Eisner, Originality, Imitation, and Plagiarism: Teaching Writing in the Digital Age, page 21

   Synonyms: bootlegger

4. biologyA bird which practises kleptoparasitism.
5. A kind of marble in children's games.

   Most of the time it went fine; some of his classmates had so many marbles they could have opened up their own shop in smurfs, pirates, purple aggies and pink panthers.

   1999, Abdelkader Benali, Susan Massotty, Wedding by the Sea, page 60

present singular third person pirates · participle present pirating · participle past pirated · past pirated · alternative obsolete pyrate

1. transitiveTo appropriate by piracy; to plunder at sea.

   They pirated the tanker and sailed to a port where they could sell the ship and cargo.

2. transitivecopyrightTo create and/or sell an unauthorized copy of.

   If a book is pirated there is a remedy for the author and publisher; if a photograph or an engraving is made of a picture without permission the law protects the painter.

   1904, Edward Elgar, in a speech on 4 July, 1904

3. transitivecopyrightTo knowingly obtain an unauthorized copy of.

   Not willing to pay full price for the computer game, Heidi pirated a copy.

   3 more examples

   In the 1970s cable companies began to pirate some of the football games that the networks had contracted to televise.

   2002, John Sayle Watterson, College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy, page 343

   College students, with their limited budgets, often pirate software to save their money for buying more important items (like beer).

   2004, Wally Wang, Steal this File Sharing Book: What They Won't Tell You about File Sharing

   Many college students now expect to sample, if not outright pirate, movies, music, software, and TV programs.

   2007, Diane Kresh, Council on Library, Information Resources, The Whole Digital Library Handbook, page 85

   Synonyms: plagiarize, counterfeit

4. intransitiveTo engage in piracy.

   He pirated in the Atlantic for years before becoming a privateer for the Queen.

5. PhilippinesintransitivetransitiveTo entice an employee to switch from a competing company to one's own.

alternative obsolete pyrate

1. not comparableIllegally imitated or reproduced, said of a trademarked product or copyrighted work, or of the counterfeit itself.

   Synonyms: pirated, counterfeit

plural Pirates

1. hobbiessomeone connected with any of a number of sports teams known as the Pirates, as a fan, player, coach etc.
   1. ball gamessomeone connected with Bristol Rovers Football Club, as a fan, player, coach etc.