buccaneer
buccaneer Lexical Profile
buccaneer Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A pirate or sea rover, originally one operating in the Caribbean Sea and along the Spanish American coast during the 17th and 18th centuries.
"The museum exhibit featured navigational instruments recovered from the shipwreck of a 17th-century buccaneer."
A recklessly adventurous, unscrupulous, or opportunistic person, especially in business or politics.
"The corporate buccaneer made a fortune by acquiring struggling companies and selling off their assets."
• verb
To live or act as a pirate or unscrupulous adventurer.
"After losing their land, several colonial settlers began to buccaneer along the trade routes of the Spanish Main."
• Rhymes for buccaneer
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the 17th century from French 'boucanier', meaning a hunter who cured wild meats on a wooden framework called a 'boucan', a word derived from the Tupi 'mukem'. Many of these displaced hunters in Hispaniola and Tortuga subsequently turned to piracy against Spanish vessels.