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Definition of "corsair" [cor•sair]

  • A pirate, especially along the Barbary Coast. (noun)
  • A swift pirate ship, often operating with official sanction. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "corsair" in a sentence
  • "That other "corsair" -- as the Spaniards called him -- that other charming and heroic shape in England's chequered chronicle of chivalry and crime -- famous in arts and arms, politics, science, literature, endowed with so many of the gifts by which men confer lustre on their age and country, whose name was already a part of"
  • "On the 18th of June the Surveillante captures an English corsair, which is a joy, but they learn from her the fall of Charleston and the surrender of Lincoln, which gives food for thought."
  • "Still, even if you hadn't, it might have come to the same thing in the long run, for the corsair is a large one, and might have taken us even if you had made her out as she rounded the point. '"