rob

Formsrobs, robbing, robbed

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To steal from a person or place, especially by using force or threats.

   Masked thieves attempted to rob the bank in broad daylight.

   The gang robbed several travelers along the mountain road.

   Similarraid, mug, loot, plunder

   Note

   The core sense has a Germanic past. Middle English robben came through Anglo-Norman and Late Latin from Frankish *raubōn, 'to plunder', and the same root survives in reave, its doublet. What matters in use is the object: you rob the victim, whether a person or a bank, not the thing taken. That shape, rob someone or somewhere, carries through almost every other use of the verb.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To carry out an act of robbery.

   He turned to rob after losing his job.

   The brothers robbed across three states before being caught.

   Similarsteal, plunder

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To unjustly or injuriously deprive someone of something, or to withhold it from them; to defraud.

   The corrupt official robbed the town of funds meant for its schools.

   These schemes rob ordinary investors of their hard-earned money.

   Similardefraud, cheat, swindle, deprive, fleece

   Note

   Here the loss comes by injustice rather than force, as with wages withheld or money defrauded. Shakespeare's The Second Part of Henry the Sixt (1591) gives the classic shape, rob someone of something: "I never robbed the soldiers of their pay." The old quip that the best way to rob a bank is to own one turns on this meaning. An owner needs no gun, only control of the money.

4. 4
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To take away something nonphysical from someone, such as an opportunity, right, or quality.

   The injury robbed him of his final season.

   Years of conflict rob children of a normal childhood.

   Similardeprive, strip

   Note

   The loss turns abstract, and the robber is often not a person at all. A long workday robs you of energy, and in R. C. Blaker's 1956 Railway Magazine piece on the Hedjaz Railway, diesel lorries are robbing a railway of its freight. The construction is fixed: rob someone or something of what they lose, with the of-phrase always present.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To take possession of the ball, puck, or similar from an opposing player.

   The midfielder robbed her opponent cleanly near the penalty box.

   Good defenders rob attackers of the puck before they reach the net.

   Similartackle, dispossess, strip

   Note

   Commentators use it for clean dispossession. Tom Rostance's BBC Sport report "Arsenal 2-1 Olympiakos" (2011) has Kevin Mirallas robbing Bacary Sagna before running into the area. Notice the object: it is the player who is robbed, not the ball. To name the ball, add of, as in rob an attacker of the puck. The verb suggests a quick tackle or interception that wins possession.

6. 6
   verbslangtransitive

   To break into a building and steal from it; to burgle.

   Burglars robbed three apartments on the same street last week.

   He bragged that he could rob any shop without getting caught.

   Similarburgle, burglarize, ransack

   Note

   Slang stretches the verb to break-ins, as in "Her house was robbed" on NPR's All Things Considered in 2008. Careful usage keeps the two crimes apart. A robbery takes from a person, usually face to face. A burglary enters a building, often an empty one. In formal or legal writing, say the house was burglarized or broken into.

7. 7
   verbslangUKtransitive

   To take something belonging to another; to steal.

   Those kids robbed my phone right out of my hand.

   He'd rob anything that wasn't nailed down.

   Similarsteal, swipe, nick, pinch

   Note

   British slang turns the verb around so that it takes the stolen thing itself: someone robs your phone or your bike. Ordinary usage puts the victim in that slot, as in the steal-from meaning, and keeps steal for the object. The slang belongs to casual speech, where "that bloke robbed my phone" sounds natural. In writing or careful talk, steal is the safe choice.

8. 8
   noununcountable

   A thick syrup of fruit juice boiled down over heat, usually sweetened with sugar or honey and used especially as a medicine.

   Each fall the household boiled down quinces to make a dark, sweet rob.

   The apothecary kept jars of rob on the high shelf for winter ailments.

   Note

   This is an unrelated word that happens to share the spelling. It came through Medieval Latin from an Arabic word for thickened fruit juice and has cousins in French, Spanish and Italian rob. Apothecaries often named it by its fruit: Thomas Short in 1749 prescribes "Rob of Elder." James Cook's journal of 1772 records a scurvy patient taking "the rob" without benefit.

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