buccaneer

noun

buc·​ca·​neer ˌbə-kə-ˈnir 

1

: any of the freebooters preying on Spanish ships and settlements especially in 17th century West Indies

broadly : pirate

2

: an unscrupulous adventurer especially in politics or business

buccaneer intransitive verb

buccaneerish

ˌbə-kə-ˈnir-ish 

adjective

Synonyms

• corsair
• freebooter
• pirate
• rover

Examples of buccaneer in a Sentence

buccaneers preyed upon treasure-laden ships in the Caribbean for nearly three hundred years

Recent Examples on the Web

Sporting a goatee, tricorn hat, purple vest and pantaloons, the bad-news buccaneer ambushed the victim near the station’s turnstiles, punching him repeatedly before making off with his AirPods and sneakers. —Colin Mixson, New York Daily News, 1 Nov. 2024

However, the swarthy crew has an abundance of muscles and ego, not one of the buccaneers knows how to read. —Jamie Lang, Variety, 20 Sep. 2024

The Adventureland Suite exudes the romance of exploration, while the opulent Pirates of the Caribbean Suite is filled with a trove of treasure maps, chests and buccaneer memorabilia. —Robb Report Studio, Robb Report, 8 Aug. 2024

The first, the buccaneers, plundered Spain’s holdings around the Caribbean in the middle of the seventeenth century. —Daniel Immerwahr, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

French boucanier woodsman, pirate (in the 17th century West Indies), from boucaner to smoke meat, from boucan wooden frame for smoking meat, from Tupi mokaʔẽ́, mbokaʔẽ́, from mo-, mbo- causative marker + kaʔẽ to be roasted, dried

First Known Use

1686, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

buccaneer

noun

buc·​ca·​neer ˌbək-ə-ˈni(ə)r 

: pirate entry 1

Etymology

from French boucanier "hunter who smokes meat over a grill"

Word Origin

In the 17th century Frenchmen living off the land in the West Indies were known as boucaniers because they preserved meat by smoking it over a wooden grill. The grill was called a boucan, after the Brazilian Indigenous name for it. When some of these men took to the sea as pirates, the word boucanier continued to be applied to them, and was borrowed into English as buccaneer.