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Definitions

privateer

[prahy-vuh-teer] / ˌpraɪ vəˈtɪər /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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After surviving some of the war’s most consequential battles, Greenwood goes home and then he becomes a privateer, Ward says.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 12, 2025

But the engine was heavy, thirsty and unreliable, and a difficult season followed before Jordan ditched the Yamaha for a privateer Hart engine.

From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2025

His father, Jan Jansen, a Dutch privateer, was captured by one of the Moorish states in 1618.

From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2019

It was here that the White Lion, a 160-ton English privateer ship, landed at what was then known as Point Comfort.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 14, 2019

“Just so we won’t have any trouble. If a French privateer sees us, we’ll look so dangerous the privateer will crowd sail and run!”

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

These are licenses for private parties, known as privateers, to capture prizes at sea.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

In theory, pirates plunder and pillage outside the law, while corsairs were privateers regulated by authorities.

From National Geographic ● Jan. 11, 2024

The privateers were sponsored by the state, and set a ransom of 500 Guineas for Capt Lambton who was sailing The Stephenson from Bristol to Newcastle at the time.

From BBC ● May 17, 2023

She theorizes that fake dollars could be passed to privateers trading on the black market.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2016

“Because,” Collins growled, “he sailed on privateers before he was knee high to a capstan. He knows guns. If we have trouble with the French he’ll be worth the rest of the crew put together.”

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

An 1856 treaty purported to ban privateering, but the U.S. refused to sign.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026

The Protestant queen wanted colonies that would act as an ideological counterweight to Spanish Catholicism in the Americas and provide a base of operations for privateering expeditions that would raid Spanish shipping.

From Textbooks ● Dec. 14, 2022

But secession slashed tariff receipts by eliminating busy Southern ports and by launching a fleet of Confederate privateering vessels on the seas.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2022

Antitrust enforcers say one of the most troubling activities of patent owners is what regulators call privateering.

From New York Times ● Jul. 16, 2013

In 1619, the first Africans arrived in the Virginia colony on a privateering ship.

From "Blood on the River" by Elisa Carbone


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