buccaneer

noun

buc·​ca·​neer ˌbə-kə-ˈnir 

1

: any of the freebooters preying on Spanish ships and settlements especially in 17th century West Indies

broadly : pirate

2

: an unscrupulous adventurer especially in politics or business

buccaneer intransitive verb

buccaneerish

ˌbə-kə-ˈnir-ish 

adjective

Synonyms of buccaneer

• pirate

Examples of buccaneer in a Sentence

buccaneers preyed upon treasure-laden ships in the Caribbean for nearly three hundred years

Recent Examples on the Web

Though nobody's quite sure how the buccaneer came to be or what his name is. — John Lauritsen, CBS News, 11 June 2026

Photos and videos of the interior reveal buccaneer style down to the most minute details, like octopus tentacle door handles. — Nicole Blanchard, Idaho Statesman, 24 June 2026

The conference curated a world of coming wonders for several hundred C-suite buccaneers who had paid up to fifty thousand dollars apiece to update their mental models and investment portfolios. — Tad Friend, New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2025

In 1688 the English buccaneer William Dampier explored New Holland’s northwestern coast. — Britannica Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Mar. 2026

Word History

Etymology

French boucanier woodsman, pirate (in the 17th century West Indies), from boucaner to smoke meat, from boucan wooden frame for smoking meat, from Tupi mokaʔẽ́, mbokaʔẽ́, from mo-, mbo- causative marker + kaʔẽ to be roasted, dried

First Known Use

1686, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for buccaneer

• auctioneer
• bandelier
• belvedere
• bombardier
• brigadier
• cavalier
• chandelier
• chanticleer
• chevalier
• commandeer
• disappear
• engineer

Kids Definition

buccaneer

noun

buc·​ca·​neer ˌbək-ə-ˈni(ə)r 

: pirate entry 1

Etymology

from French boucanier "hunter who smokes meat over a grill"

Word Origin

In the 17th century Frenchmen living off the land in the West Indies were known as boucaniers because they preserved meat by smoking it over a wooden grill. The grill was called a boucan, after the Brazilian Indigenous name for it. When some of these men took to the sea as pirates, the word boucanier continued to be applied to them, and was borrowed into English as buccaneer.