picaroon

or pick·a·roon

[ pik-uh-roon ]
See synonyms for picaroon on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a rogue, vagabond, thief, or brigand.

  2. a pirate or corsair.

verb (used without object)
  1. to act or operate as a pirate or brigand.

Origin of picaroon

1
1615–25; <Spanish picarón, augmentative of pícaropicaro

Words Nearby picaroon

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

How to use picaroon in a sentence

  • But I never believed in them as devoutly as I believed in the destruction of that infernal picaroon.

    The Wing-and-Wing | J. Fenimore Cooper
  • I observed wretched devils playing here, whose whole standing kit would not have brought a picaroon at vendue.

    Impressions of America | Tyrone Power
  • On the way from Genoa to Messina Irving's vessel was boarded by a piratical picaroon.

    Washington Irving | Henry W. Boynton
  • MacRae threw open his hatches and counted the salmon as they came flipping off the point of a picaroon.

    Poor Man's Rock | Bertrand W. Sinclair
  • picaroon, a pirate or buccaneer originally; now an ordinary thief.

    The Slang Dictionary | John Camden Hotten

British Dictionary definitions for picaroon

picaroon

pickaroon

/ (ˌpɪkəˈruːn) /


noun
  1. archaic an adventurer or rogue

Origin of picaroon

1
C17: from Spanish picarón, from pícaro

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