piratical
adjUS /paɪˈɹætɪkɘl/
Etymology From Latin pīrāticus + -al, from Ancient Greek πειρᾱτικός (peirātikós); equivalent to pirate + -ical.
1
Of, pertaining to, or similar to pirates.
- A nursery-maid is never afraid of what you people call work, So I made up my mind to go as a kind of piratical maid-of-all-work;1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, “When Frederic Was a Little Lad”, in The Pirates of Penzance […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC, page 5:
- He looks piratical, with his beard and long hair and single pearl earring, or like a jumble-sale 17th century nobleman.2019 September 14, Miranda Sawyer, “Mark Leckey: ‘There has to be a belief that art has this power, this charisma'”, in The Guardian:
2
Biology, Natural sciences, Ornithology Of a bird, practising kleptoparasitism.
- Derived terms
- biopiratical, piratically, unpiratical