Meanings
comparative more piratical · superlative most piratical · alternative piratic
- Of, pertaining to, or similar to pirates.
He looks piratical, with his beard and long hair and single pearl earring, or like a jumble-sale 17th century nobleman.
2019 September 14, Miranda Sawyer, “Mark Leckey: ‘There has to be a belief that art has this power, this charisma'”, in The Guardian1 more example
A nursery-maid is never afraid of what you people call work, So I made up my mind to go as a kind of piratical maid-of-all-work;
1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, “When Frederic Was a Little Lad”, in The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC, page 5 - biologyOf a bird, practising kleptoparasitism.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Ancient Greekπειρᾱτικός
- Englishpiratical
From Latin pīrāticus + -al, from Ancient Greek πειρᾱτικός (peirātikós); equivalent to pirate + -ical.
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
piratical. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/piratical
“piratical.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/piratical. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “piratical,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/piratical.
Source: piratical on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.