How to Use privateer in a Sentence

privateer

noun
  • But of course, these privateers should have some guidelines.
    — Rick Bennett, Time, 17 Sep. 2025
  • While the manufacturers are the heart of race weekend, the privateers are the soul.
    — Mitchell Nicholson, Popular Mechanics, 7 Sep. 2018
  • What are the challenges and advantages of competing as a small privateer?
    — Viju Mathew, Robb Report, 25 June 2021
  • With nowhere else to turn, Alina enlists the help of an infamous privateer and sets out to lead the Grisha army.
    — Emily Burack, Town & Country, 1 Oct. 2022
  • The Dash was a privateer schooner that vanished in 1815 and soon entered local legend as a ghost ship.
    — Leanna Renee Hieber, Big Think, 2 Oct. 2025
  • With the Darkling after her and her powers, Alina turns to an infamous privateer for help.
    — Erica Gonzales, Harper's BAZAAR, 23 Apr. 2021
  • The ghost ship of Harpswell had been the privateer Dash, which had been lost at sea after compiling its remarkable record.
    — Leanna Renee Hieber, Big Think, 2 Oct. 2025
  • Many see Sheikh Amoudi less as a beneficent local son than a Saudi privateer.
    — Danny Hakim and Ben Hubbard, New York Times, 16 Mar. 2018
  • Factory teams will come and go, but a sports car series like IMSA lives and dies by its privateers.
    — Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 18 Oct. 2018
  • These men were, respectively, a reformist prime minister, the founder of the police force, a naval explorer and a privateer.
    — Simon Constable, FOXNews.com, 22 Mar. 2026
  • The location of each of the wrecks isn’t conclusive; some are still undiscovered, while others were salvaged by survivors or privateers.
    — Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 4 June 2024
  • Often, her passengers walk through a world where privateers and pirates are closer to their cabins than to Neverland.
    — Joe Sills, Forbes, 19 Jan. 2025
  • Hundreds of years later, they were found, proving that the ship and the cargo were indeed legitimate prey for privateers, at least according to the law at the time.
    — The New Yorker, 5 Aug. 2024
  • The structure is similar to how pirates and privateers once attacked foreign enemies at sea on behalf of their government.
    — Rick Bennett, Time, 17 Sep. 2025
  • Those 64 ships had 1,242 guns, compared to 14,872 privateer guns.
    — Rick Bennett, Time, 17 Sep. 2025
  • Letters of marque and reprisal license the privateer to attack and capture vessels belonging to enemy navies and merchant fleets.
    — Robert Zafft, Forbes, 9 June 2021
  • The Privateers ended the night by honoring their seven seniors after the game with a plaque presentation and fireworks.
    — Nola.com | The Times-Picayune, NOLA.com, 13 May 2017
  • Four hundred years ago, in 1619, English privateers sold African captives to Jamestown colonists.
    — Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey, Twin Cities, 28 July 2019
  • Featuring mostly privateers—riders who pay their way to race—these guys and girls have nothing to lose, meaning the races often feature pretty nasty takeouts and a healthy amount of contact.
    — Matt Crisara, Popular Mechanics, 21 June 2023
  • But it was captured by a British privateer and departed for Jamaica, crammed with 442 enslaved people.
    — Lizz Schumer, People.com, 24 Aug. 2025
  • The privateer Captain Kidd buried treasure on Gardiners Island.
    — Sam Roberts, New York Times, 11 Oct. 2019
  • His father, Jan Jansen, a Dutch privateer, was captured by one of the Moorish states in 1618.
    — Jennifer Schuessler, New York Times, 3 Dec. 2019
  • When Darwin arrived, the islands were little more than a stopover for privateers, whalers and other sailing vessels, although at the time, at least one island was a penal colony.
    — Stephen C. George, Discover Magazine, 22 May 2023
  • All other examples of 250 GTO were sold to and raced by privateers and teams not run by Ferrari itself.
    — Alistair Charlton, Forbes, 13 Nov. 2023
  • Ross’ second husband, mariner Joseph Ashburn, served the Revolution as a privateer and died in an English prison.
    — Marla Miller, The Conversation, 23 Mar. 2026
  • Then, in the Gulf of Mexico, the ship was attacked by two English privateers – pirates under a foreign flag of convenience.
    — USA Today, 22 Aug. 2019
  • The English wanted these privateers to slow down Spanish settlement and empowered them to attack Spanish ships.
    — National Geographic, 13 Aug. 2019
  • The vessel was likely an 8-gun cutter used by the Royal Navy, the Revenue Service, smugglers and privateers.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 24 May 2024
  • The artifacts were seized through civil forfeiture, a sometimes controversial practice that dates back to the age of privateers and that has since been used to go after moonshiners, mafia dons and drug kingpins.
    — Marc Ramirez, USA Today, 21 Oct. 2025
  • All seven privateer outfits from the MotoGP paddock will enter the new series in 2019.
    — Jonathan Hawkins, CNN, 14 June 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'privateer.' 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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