verb (used with object), robbed, rob·bing.
- to take something from (someone) by unlawful force or threat of violence; steal from.
- to deprive (someone) of some right or something legally due: They robbed her of her inheritance.
- to plunder or rifle (a house, shop, etc.).
- to deprive of something unjustly or injuriously: The team was robbed of a home run hitter when the umpire called it a foul ball. The shock robbed him of his speech.
- Mining. to remove ore or coal from (a pillar).
verb (used without object), robbed, rob·bing.
- to commit or practice robbery.
- rob Peter to pay Paul, to take something from one person or thing to pay one’s debt or hypothetical debt to another, as to sacrifice one’s health by overworking.
noun
- a male given name, form of Robert.
verb robs, robbing or robbed
- (tr) to take something from (someone) illegally, as by force or threat of violence
- to plunder (a house, shop, etc)
- (tr) to deprive unjustlyto be robbed of an opportunity
late 12c., from Old French rober “rob, steal, pillage, ransack, rape,” from West Germanic *rauba “booty” (cf. Old High German roubon “to rob,” roub “spoil, plunder;” Old English reafian, source of the reave in bereave), from Proto-Germanic *raubon “to rob,” from PIE *reup-, *reub- “to snatch” (see rip (v.)).
Lord, hou schulde God approve þat þou robbe Petur, and gif þis robbere to Poule in þe name of Crist? [Wyclif, c.1380]
To rob the cradle is attested from 1864 in reference to drafting young men in the American Civil War; by 1949 in reference to seductions or romantic relationships with younger persons. Related: Robbed; robbing.