How to Use pirate in a Sentence

pirate

1 of 2 noun
  • A software pirate made bootleg copies of the computer program.
  • The big pirate ship on her head.
    — Michael Schneider, Variety, 10 May 2026
  • How did the pirate call his wife?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • What type of socks do pirates wear?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • What does a pirate use his cell phone for?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • What kind of grades did the pirate get in school?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • What does a pirate pay for his hook and his peg?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Then there’s the scourge known as porch pirates.
    — Inga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Jan. 2026
  • Just like Scott said, there were a lot of pirates out there.
    — Dan Morrison, USA Today, 7 Nov. 2025
  • What does a pair of pirate’s earrings cost?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • What does a dyslexic pirate say?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Why are pirates called pirates?
    — Hallie Milstein, Southern Living, 2 May 2026
  • For a special treat, book a pirate tuck-in at bedtime.
    — Allison Tibaldi, USA Today, 9 June 2026
  • What’s a pirate’s favorite fish?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • What’s a pirate’s favorite fruit?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Could voice notes be a potential pirate move?
    — Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
  • What are a pirate’s two favorite fast-food restaurants?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Why did the pirate go on vacation?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • What’s the favorite restaurant for peg-legged pirates?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • What two letters are favorites of pirates?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • To be on a real boat and see the cannons and see the people dressed like pirates.
    — Francesca Gariano, Peoplemag, 10 May 2023
  • Much like the pirate code, a show bible is really just a set of guidelines.
    — Vulture, 4 Apr. 2023
  • Rest assured, there’s nothing pirate-y about them.
    — Aemilia Madden, Glamour, 29 Aug. 2025
  • Ryan Miller has been a pirate and a spaceship captain.
    — Eve Chen, USA Today, 7 Dec. 2025
  • What are pirates’ favorite subjects in school?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Kids will love the wooden pirate ship playground and touch tank full of marine life.
    — Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 27 Aug. 2025
  • And to know that their daughter was brutally killed by pirates?
    — Maggie Fremont, Vulture, 17 Apr. 2026
  • What would a pirate wear for his Halloween costume?
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 Sep. 2025
  • Something tells me that everyone is once again asleep and the pirates are on the move.
    — John Moorlach, Oc Register, 2 Mar. 2026
  • Teddy wears a red coat with a ruffled shirt and a big pirate's hat in the adorable photos.
    — Angela Andaloro, Peoplemag, 3 Nov. 2022

pirate

2 of 2 verb
  • He was accused of pirating their invention.
  • Any livestream could be pirated.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 25 June 2026
  • Every week, new accounts on the app pop up and pirate entire episodes of the show.
    — WIRED, 23 Jan. 2023
  • There’s a ton of junk out there, and many of these sites pirate content (which can land you in hot water).
    — Kim Komando, USA TODAY, 11 July 2021
  • Sell better toys and shut down companies that are pirating their stuff.
    — Paul Brinkmann, OrlandoSentinel.com, 9 June 2017
  • Close to half of survey respondents who pirated shows or movies said the cost of the content is too high.
    — Gavin Bridge, Variety, 21 Feb. 2023
  • Of course most of filmmakers would not want their film to be pirated for economic aspects.
    — Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 15 Sep. 2023
  • These videos cost money to make, but were pirated and posted online without paying the people who made them.
    — Lynsey G., Glamour, 25 Sep. 2017
  • The seventh season was also pirated more than 1 billion times.
    — Chris Morris, Fortune, 14 Sep. 2017
  • Then came Drain Gang, Lil Uzi Vert, and a cousin who showed him how to pirate software.
    — Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 15 June 2026
  • Thousands of people did pirate-y things, snagged beads from the parade route, and generally ate, drank and were merry.
    — Curt Anderson, ajc, 30 Jan. 2022
  • All over the world, there were people downloading it, pirating, downloading it.
    — Emily Longeretta, Variety, 8 Jan. 2024
  • Most of the memes of the image are pirated online spoofs, so Guillem is not getting much in the way of a copyright kickback.
    — Raisa Bruner, Time, 28 Aug. 2017
  • New Hampshire's Isles of Shoals is primarily known for its ties to pirate lore.
    — Chelsey Cox, USA TODAY, 17 Oct. 2021
  • Anthropic has already been in the hot seat for getting caught pirating millions of digital copies of books.
    — James Folta, Literary Hub, 6 Feb. 2026
  • About 70% of the software in use in China, for example, is pirated.
    — James Bacchus, WSJ, 16 Aug. 2017
  • The judge's order asserts that Anthropic pirated more than 7 million copies of books.
    — Chloe Veltman, NPR, 5 Sep. 2025
  • In an ironic twist, though, the makers of that firmware have introduced anti-piracy code to prevent people from pirating their own work.
    — Kyle Orland, Ars Technica, 28 June 2018
  • The Sand Pirates pirate ship silently swung like the pendulum on a grandfather clock.
    — Brady MacDonald, Oc Register, 5 Dec. 2025
  • Yet tech companies have long made these kinds of calls, dating back to efforts to thwart child exploitation and police people who pirate music and movies.
    — Washington Post, 24 Mar. 2021
  • The tall ship is used to educate more than 5,000 school children a year on maritime history and pirate life.
    — Erika I. Ritchie, Oc Register, 13 Sep. 2025
  • With content spend slowing down, there may well be fewer titles to pirate in 2023, which may see the total volume fall.
    — Gavin Bridge, Variety, 21 Feb. 2023
  • The leader of that pirating site claims that the site isn’t related to Streameast, which ACE helped take down.
    — Scharon Harding, ArsTechnica, 4 Sep. 2025
  • Most people think of pirates and pirating as a chaotic endeavor with every swashbuckler in it for themselves.
    — WIRED, 26 Oct. 2023
  • Any new Costco will only pirate customers from existing retail stores, adding to new vacancies.
    — Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 10 Apr. 2026
  • Authors who oppose book pirating have a straightforward argument against Smith’s project.
    — Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 14 Aug. 2023
  • Massive cannons were stationed at forts across the world, while smaller and more-portable guns accompanied troops and naval (and pirate) vessels.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 Apr. 2026
  • There’s also an emphasis on ensuring that none of the footage or trailers from upcoming blockbusters are pirated and leaked online.
    — Matt Donnelly, Variety, 13 Apr. 2023
  • While its Windows and Office products are used in China, the software is often pirated.
    — Karen Weise, New York Times, 26 Feb. 2020
  • Ticketed experiences include a cannon battle aboard a tall ship, tours of the tall ships in port, a mermaid meet-and-greet and swim show, pirate school for scallywags and more.
    — Marla Jo Fisher, Oc Register, 8 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pirate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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