How to Use robber baron in a Sentence

robber baron

noun
  • The capricious enforcement of those rules born out of the robber baron days was one way to put the squeeze on.
    — Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 3 Sep. 2025
  • So all these comments about ‘the robber barons are going to come in and steal our property’ are not true.
    — Karen Berkowitz, chicagotribune.com, 12 July 2018
  • And there’s another lesson from the robber barons—one that some of you and your peers have already embraced.
    — The Economist, 20 Jan. 2018
  • Stewart called Goldstein a robber baron while forgetting the show was live.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA TODAY, 9 May 2024
  • Meanwhile, the Northeastern robber barons who owned the mills along the river .
    — Rashad Shabazz, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Jan. 2020
  • This is what our nation’s robber barons consider a sound investment?
    — Anne Victoria Clark, Vulture, 29 Oct. 2025
  • But there’s also a playbook for the robber barons to get and consolidate power.
    — Frank Digiacomo, Billboard, 11 Nov. 2025
  • And nonprofits can behave just as poorly as any rapacious robber baron.
    — Darius Tahir, Fortune, 18 May 2022
  • More than a century ago, the American people stood up to the robber barons back then and busted the trusts.
    — The New York Times, New York Times, 16 Jan. 2025
  • A lot of his robber barons, towards the end of their careers, started worrying about their lives and how they would be remembered.
    — Lynette Rice, Deadline, 10 Aug. 2025
  • Some may argue that today’s tech companies are more of a threat to the world than the 1890s robber barons.
    — Jamie Merisotis, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • The robber barons and telecom wildcatters borrowed to build their empires, and dragged their financiers down with them when the music stopped.
    — Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 23 Sep. 2025
  • Compared with these finance guys, the robber barons of the past look like Johnny Appleseed.
    — The New Yorker, 4 May 2020
  • Libraries were endowed by industrial fortunes and the robber barons.
    — The Atlantic, 16 June 2026
  • The western elements of 1923 sit side by side with stories about politicians and robber barons.
    — Noel Murray, Vulture, 18 Nov. 2024
  • Tim Scully and Nicholas Sand—were bankrolled by the freaky scions of the Mellon robber baron dynasty.
    — Wired, 28 July 2022
  • The guest rooms are outfitted with furnishings that would fit well in the backwoods manor of a Gilded Age robber baron.
    — Boyce Upholt, Outside Online, 10 Aug. 2022
  • But everyone's favorite robber baron came out on top with a few new enemies, one of whom arranges for him to be shot at the end of Episode 7.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 11 Aug. 2025
  • And to the abject awfulness of such robber barons as Misters Carnegie, Gould, and Frick.
    — Literary Hub, 3 Apr. 2026
  • Set in the Upper East Side mansion where the robber baron himself once lived, the museum exudes old-world charm.
    — Alex Greenberger, ARTnews.com, 26 Mar. 2025
  • The vision of an aging robber baron named Henry Flagler, the route took thousands of workers seven years to complete.
    — Tony Perrottet, WSJ, 15 Aug. 2022
  • This vintage rail car sleeps two in robber baron splendor, although the accommodations are, by modern standards, compact.
    — Richard A. Marini, San Antonio Express-News, 2 Apr. 2021
  • The lone passenger and his bicycle felt like a 19th century robber baron in his own private railroad carriage.
    — Steve Rubenstein, SFChronicle.com, 11 July 2020
  • The show picks up threads from Downton, taking place in America in the late 19th century, in the age of the robber barons.
    — Maureen Lee Lenker, Entertainment Weekly, 15 Sep. 2025
  • In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, America had reined in the behemoths built by robber barons.
    — The Economist, 31 Aug. 2019
  • Today’s corporate bosses aren’t the robber barons or country-club networkers of yesteryear.
    — Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, WSJ, 12 July 2017
  • Ifirst became aware of the work of French designer Henri Samuel in the mid-1980s, in what might be called his robber baron phase.
    — David Netto, Town & Country, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Were robber barons exploiting workers and hoarding profits, or were wage-earners sharing in the bounty created by a growing economy?
    — Livia Gershon, JSTOR Daily, 15 Aug. 2025
  • The hotel was named for Collis Huntington, one of the Big Four railroad tycoons often derided as robber barons.
    — Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle, 20 Mar. 2023
  • The new robber barons of the 21st century … are trying to sell the idea of a third category as something that will allow more flexibility than employment.
    — Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2019

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