land grab

or land-grab


noun
  1. the seizing of land by a nation, state, or organization, especially illegally, underhandedly, or unfairly.

Other words from land grab

  • land-grabber, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use land grab in a sentence

  • There is practically no surface soil, and thus the moors offers little temptation to the “land-grabbers.”

  • The forests had so many eager enemies—unprincipled land-grabbers and lumbermen, sheep, fire.

    The Rules of the Game | Stewart Edward White
  • By a misuse of one of Fitzroy's freakish ordinances land-grabbers had got hold of much of the land near Auckland.

    The Long White Cloud | William Pember Reeves
  • The land-grabbers had subsidized somebody and my letters never got to headquarters.

    The Long Chance | Peter B. Kyne
  • The land-grabbers brought the courts in, and a crooked judge.

    The Ranchman | Charles Alden Seltzer

British Dictionary definitions for landgrab

landgrab

/ (ˈlændˌɡræb) /


noun
  1. informal a sudden attempt to establish ownership of or copyright on something in advance of competitors

Origin of landgrab

1
C20: from the competition to stake claims to available land in 19th-century America

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012