piracy
/ˈpaɪrəsi/ (bre, ipa) · /ˈpaɪrəsi/ (ame, ipa) · /ˈpī-rə-sē/ (ame, mw)
piracy — noun
1. the violent crime of using a boat to chase down ships on the ocean and steal car
the violent crime of using a boat to chase down ships on the ocean and steal cargo, money, or weapons from the people on board.
Piracy off the coast of Somalia made shipping companies hire armed guards for their oil tankers.
piracy off the coast of [region]
The navy captain spent his career fighting piracy in the busy waters near Singapore.
fighting piracy + location
In the 1700s, piracy was so common that wealthy merchants paid huge sums for naval escorts.
The crew was charged with piracy after they boarded a fishing boat and stole its catch.
Captain Reyes wrote a book about her family's long history of fighting piracy in the Caribbean.
- buccaneering
old-fashioned and romantic; usually about historical pirates of the 1600s-1700s
- sea robbery
plain descriptive term; sometimes used in legal news reports
- hijacking
broader — covers ships, planes, and trucks; piracy is specifically at sea
文法句型
piracy off [region]
an act of piracy
用法筆記
Almost always uncountable. The phrase 'an act of piracy' is the standard way to talk about a single incident. Often paired with a location: 'piracy off the coast of...', 'piracy in the [Strait/Gulf of...]'.
常見錯誤
2. the practice of making and sharing copies of films, songs, software, or books wi
the practice of making and sharing copies of films, songs, software, or books without permission from the people who own the rights — for example, downloading a movie from a free website instead of paying to watch it.
Music piracy fell sharply once cheap streaming services like Spotify became popular.
music / film / software piracy
The studio lost millions of dollars to online piracy in the first week after the film's release.
lose [money] to piracy
Software piracy is still a serious problem in many universities, where students share paid programs for free.
Hana refused to download the album from a piracy site, even though all her friends were doing it.
New laws against piracy now allow courts to block websites that share stolen movies and games.
- bootlegging
informal; usually about illegal copies sold for money, especially recordings
- copyright infringement
formal and legal; the umbrella term that includes piracy as one common type
- counterfeiting
covers fake physical goods broadly (handbags, money, medicine); piracy is specifically about creative works
文法句型
[noun] piracy
piracy of [creative work]
用法筆記
Frequently appears as a compound: 'music piracy', 'film piracy', 'software piracy', 'video-game piracy'. Distinguish from sense 1 by the fixed compound — when the word in front names a creative product or media type, it is always this sense, never sea robbery.