Library / English Dictionary

ROBBERY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Larceny by threat of violence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("robbery" is a kind of...):

larceny; stealing; theft; thievery; thieving (the act of taking something from someone unlawfully)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "robbery"):

armed robbery; heist; holdup; stickup (robbery at gunpoint)

caper; job (a crime (especially a robbery))

dacoity; dakoity (robbery by a gang of armed dacoits)

heist; rip-off (the act of stealing)

highjacking; hijacking (robbery of a traveller or vehicle in transit or seizing control of a vehicle by the use of force)

highway robbery (robbery of travellers on or near a public road)

rolling (the act of robbing a helpless person)

Derivation:

rob (take something away by force or without the consent of the owner)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Plundering during riots or in wartime

Synonyms:

looting; robbery

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("robbery" is a kind of...):

pillage; pillaging; plundering (the act of stealing valuable things from a place)

Credits

 Context examples: 

‘A robbery has been committed,’ I gasped.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There were no signs of violence, no footmarks, no robbery, no record of strangers having been seen upon the roads.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I heard that the table beer was a robbery of parents, and the pudding an imposition.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

That was grotesque enough in the outset, and yet it ended in a desperate attempt at robbery.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It is certain that no robbery has been committed.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It appeared from its position in the paper to have been the one event of importance in town, and the account of it ran in this way: A desperate attempt at robbery, culminating in the death of one man and the capture of the criminal, occurred this afternoon in the City.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My sister asked me what was the matter, and why I was so pale; but I told her that I had been upset by the jewel robbery at the hotel.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then I gathered up a few plates and pots of silver, to carry out the idea of the robbery, and there I left them, with orders to give the alarm when I had a quarter of an hour’s start.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Again and again in cases of the most varying sorts—forgery cases, robberies, murders—I have felt the presence of this force, and I have deduced its action in many of those undiscovered crimes in which I have not been personally consulted.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Evidence of a previous conviction for robbery having been given against the prisoner, the magistrate refused to deal summarily with the offence, but referred it to the Assizes.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)