cradle robber
- noun
- /ˈkreɪdəl ˈrɑːbər/
- Offensive
:
viejo verde
- People often call him a cradle robber due to his relationship with a woman half his age.
Examples
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Critics labeled the actor a cradle robber when he was seen with his much younger partner.
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Plus, I hear you're a cradle robber, so you probably have a hard time keeping the children straight.
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She has faced criticism as a cradle robber for dating someone significantly younger.
Synonyms
A person who dates someone much younger
Surface Forms
Morphology
cradle + robber
The term transparently combines 'cradle' (associated with babies/early life) and 'robber' (a thief), so a learner can plausibly infer a figurative meaning of someone who 'takes' partners from the cradle — i.e., dates much younger people. However, this is an informal, metaphorical extension (and relies on the idiom 'rob the cradle'), so it is not fully literal or universally predictable for all B1 learners.
Etymology
The slang cradle robber may come from the image of someone stealing a baby from a cradle — a robber taking someone very young. So people use it to describe an older person who dates someone much younger, i.e., 'to date someone much younger'.
