robbery
Pluralrobberies
- 1The crime of taking, or trying to take, another person's property by force or the threat of force.
The charge was upgraded to robbery because he had pointed a weapon at the clerk.
Armed robbery accounts for a large share of violent crime in the city.
Similartheft, mugging, holdup, heist
Note
Criminal law draws the line more tightly than everyday speech. A taking becomes robbery through force or the threat of it, and that coercion is what separates it from simple theft. An attempt counts too, so a robbery need not succeed. Compounds name the target or the means, as in bank robbery and armed robbery. The everyday sense covers any robbing, but in the legal sense the violence or intimidation is essential.
- 2The act or practice of robbing others of their belongings.
The novel describes a frontier town plagued by robbery and lawlessness.
He made a living through robbery before settling into honest work.
Similartheft, stealing, thievery, plunder, banditry
Note
Pillage sits at the root of this sense. Middle English robberie came from Old French roberie, built on rober, "to steal; to pillage", and ultimately from a Frankish verb. English can also read it as rob + -ery, and Dutch roverij and German Räuberei are its cousins. Used uncountably, it names a practice, as in a town plagued by robbery. Used countably, it names a single act, and the plural is robberies.
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Origin
From Middle English robberie, from Old French roberie, based on the verb rober ("to steal; to pillage") plus the ending -ie. It ultimately goes back to an unattested Frankish form *raubōn, and is related to Dutch roverij and German Räuberei. It replaced the native Old English word rēaflāc.