highway robbery

noun — 2 senses

highway robbery

noun

Etymology Compare Old English weġrēaf (“highway robbery”, literally “road-theft”).

1

Historical The act of robbing a traveler on a public road.

2

Idiomatic, Usually Excessive or exorbitant prices.

  • They think they can charge $400 for a shirt? That's highway robbery.
Related terms
highwayman

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.