pirates 1 of 2

noun

plural of pirate
as in buccaneers
someone who engages in robbery of ships at sea Sir Francis Drake was a British pirate who preyed on Spanish ships with the connivance of Elizabeth I

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pirates

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of pirate
as in seizes
to take or make use of under a guise of authority but without actual right using pirated software that was subject to copyright

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of pirates
Noun
Mo, who arrived by chance among the pirates as an infant, has been brought up by the ship’s kindly captain, Claas. — Leo Barraclough, Variety, 22 Oct. 2026 Wild to me though that something that expensive would just be dropped off with porch pirates out there. — Joe Kinsey Outkick, FOXNews.com, 8 Oct. 2026 Jamal convened a press conference proclaiming to be able to communicate by phone with Somali pirates who were holding a Nigerian ship hostage. — Mia Cathell, The Washington Examiner, 5 Oct. 2026 Get it at 50 percent off and complete the set with matching bowls featuring the whole Peanuts gang in designs with bats and pumpkins, Snoopy’s doghouse, pirates, Schroeder’s piano, pumpkin patches, cute costumes, and more. — Caley Sturgill, Southern Living, 2 Oct. 2026 The pirates are believed to have kept the crew supplied with food during the hijacking. — ABC News, 30 Sep. 2026 Knights in shining armor, pirates and princesses grace the grounds of Sleepy Hollow for the annual Renaissance Faire in Des Moines. — Kyle Werner, Des Moines Register, 6 Sep. 2026 But the rollicking jollity that accompanies the final two acts, which includes the entrance of pirates and the abduction of Marina to a brothel, robs the ending of some of its pathos. — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 5 Sep. 2026 Speaking of singing pirates, Curry clearly fancied these kinds of roles, signing on to play the villainous Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996), Brian Henson’s musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novel. — ArsTechnica, 26 Aug. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for pirates
  1. buccaneers
  2. seizes
  3. corsairs
  4. claims
  5. raiders
  6. steals
  7. confiscates
  8. converts
Noun
  • The conference curated a world of coming wonders for several hundred C-suite buccaneers who had paid up to fifty thousand dollars apiece to update their mental models and investment portfolios.
    — Tad Friend, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025
Definition of buccaneers
Verb
  • Sid is smart enough to sniff this out, and the show seizes the opportunity to raise the romantic stakes through an adorably British expression of mutual libidinousness.
    — Scott Tobias, Vulture, 14 Oct. 2026
  • That reporting revealed that the state frequently seizes money from legal settlements stemming from medical malpractice, police brutality, workplace injury and other wrongful death lawsuits.
    — Ginny Monk, Hartford Courant, 28 Sep. 2026
Definition of seizes
Noun
  • Courtesy Luxury Living Costa Rica Three centuries before wealthy investors sought out trophy holdings along Costa Rica’s untamed Pacific coast, these shores were a theater of conquistadors, corsairs and cannon fire.
    — Donna Hardie-Scott, Forbes.com, 22 July 2026
  • After the Revolutionary War, the United States maintained no standing fleet, but attacks by the Barbary pirates—corsairs based in North Africa who preyed on American merchant ships and took sailors ransom—drove Congress to reestablish a navy in the 1790s.
    — David A. Graham, The Atlantic, 4 June 2026
Definition of corsairs
Verb
  • Johnson's team also suggests taking out a loan of $480 million to help pay off police misconduct claims sooner, which the team says would cut down on legal costs.
    — Chris Tye, CBS News, 21 Oct. 2026
  • Shultz claims Holmes spotted Balwani’s abusive tendencies and clocked him as the perfect fall guy if things went south.
    — Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 20 Oct. 2026
Definition of claims
Noun
  • The series chronicles the rise of Norse raiders Erik Bloodaxe (Xavier Molyneux) and his wife Gunnhild, Mother of Kings (Jessica Madsen).
    — Max Goldbart, Deadline, 9 Oct. 2026
  • Frank and Jesse James rode with them as the raiders killed 150 to 200 men and boys and burned down nearly every business on Massachusetts Street, as well as dozens of homes.
    — Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of raiders
Verb
  • Professor Frink reanimates his formerly deceased father after winning the Nobel Prize, but the elder Frink, not content with his current body, steals parts and organs from other humans.
    — Joshua Kurp, Vulture, 26 Oct. 2026
  • The central spiral staircase in the common area, with its ultra-plush carpeting, steals the show.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 Oct. 2026
Definition of steals
Verb
  • Large swaths of the film are composed of close-ups of people’s faces or hands, giving seemingly mundane exchanges and gestures — say, a moment when Evans, unimpressed with Holmes’s egg-whisking technique, confiscates the bowl — greater weight.
    — Alex Barasch, Vulture, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Unlike most other states, California has its own inspection-and-approval system for fireworks, and confiscates those failing standards.
    — Trevor Hughes, USA Today, 30 June 2026
Definition of confiscates
Verb
  • The model normally converts a user’s spoken instructions into a sequence of actions that the robot can execute.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 21 Oct. 2026
  • The low-dropout regulator which converts battery voltage into a steady supply is specifically engineered to avoid adding noise.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of converts

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Cite this Entry

“Pirates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/pirates. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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