noun
buccaneer
buh-kuh-NIH
noun
1
A pirate, especially one of the 17th-century seafarers who raided Spanish ships and settlements in the Caribbean.
"The museum has a display on buccaneers who once terrorized these waters."
2
Someone who acts in a bold, adventurous, and slightly unscrupulous way, especially in business.
"The company was built by a buccaneer entrepreneur unafraid of risk."
How to Use Buccaneer
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA pirate, or more loosely, a daring and reckless risk-taker.
Common pairings
buccaneer spirit
swashbuckling buccaneer
Word Forms
buccaneered past tense, buccaneers plural, buccaneers singular
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Etymology
From French boucanier, someone who smoked meat on a boucan (grill), from the Tupi word mboka'e — the name shifted from meat-smokers to the pirates who adopted their lifestyle in the Caribbean.