PIRATICAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does piratical mean? 

• PIRATICAL (adjective)
  The adjective PIRATICAL has 2 senses:

1. characteristic of pirates

2. characteristic of piracy

  Familiarity information: PIRATICAL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PIRATICAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characteristic of pirates

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

piratical attackers

Pertainym:

pirate (someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation)

Derivation:

pirate (a ship that is manned by pirates)

pirate (someone who robs at sea or plunders the land from the sea without having a commission from any sovereign nation)

pirate (someone who uses another person's words or ideas as if they were his own)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characteristic of piracy

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

piratical editions of my book

Pertainym:

piracy (the act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as if they were your own)

Derivation:

piracy (the act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as if they were your own)

 Context examples 

This was the proximate cause, I suppose, of my dreaming about him, for what appeared to me to be half the night; and dreaming, among other things, that he had launched Mr. Peggotty's house on a piratical expedition, with a black flag at the masthead, bearing the inscription Tidd's Practice, under which diabolical ensign he was carrying me and little Em'ly to the Spanish Main, to be drowned.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)