grave robbing
3
7.9
- noun
- /ɡreɪv ˈrɑbɪŋ/
- NSFW
:
saqueo de tumbas
- Last night, the police discovered evidence of grave robbing in the old cemetery.
Examples
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Anyway, the penalty for grave robbing is the noose, isn't it?
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Hey, Alan, how many years do they give you for grave robbing?
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Grave robbing is always the first sign.
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The script contains numerous references to grave robbing.
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Grave robbing kept many people busy on the frontier supplying Morton and the growing number of phrenologists.
Academic text (1996) -
And in unrelated news, the body of deceased local resident Joan Snerd was dug up in an apparent grave robbing last night.
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In 1914, he and his team were arrested—but acquitted—for grave robbing in New Jersey.
Academic text (2006) -
One piece on my Boston tour was a red Apulian amphora that had no information on its exact origin and had been acquired in the early 1990s—a time of rampant grave-robbing in southern Italy.
Academic text (2008) -
The community was outraged after the news of grave robbing spread, leading to increased security at the burial grounds.
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He was charged with grave robbing after he was caught digging up graves for valuables.
Synonyms
Illegal digging of old sites or graves to take things to sell
How Illegal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'illegal digging up graves to steal valuables or bodies' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'grave' (burial site) with 'rob/robbing' (to steal), so the action is predictable from the parts. This construction follows ordinary noun + verb nominalization patterns and has clear parallels in other languages, making it readily understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Grave robbing comes from people digging up a grave and robbing what is inside. In the past, criminals dug into graves to take jewelry or sell bodies to doctors, so today 'grave robbing' means 'illegally digging up graves to steal valuables or bodies'.