pirate ship
9
2.7
- noun
- /ˈpaɪrɪt ʃɪp/
:
barco pirata
- The crew of the pirate ship launched an attack on the merchant vessel in the moonlight.
- seize a pirate ship
In the old Caribbean days when you had pirate ships around, pirate ships were extremely democratic.
- In the old Caribbean days when you had pirate ships around, pirate ships were extremely democratic.
- And I'm going like, OK, so it's a pirate ship.
- That nigga had a pirate ship.
Examples
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He is a sailor on the pirate ship Revenge.
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We were to use it to repair the hull of the damaged pirate ship.
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Should we run off and join a pirate ship?
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Sober them up and take them to the pirate ship.
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The letter had originally been found on a pirate ship that was captured by the British Navy.
Fiction book (1997) -
All pirate ships have been ordered to search for you, sire.
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For a moment, it sounded like cannons on a pirate ship.
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As the two men fight, Indy notices that the pirate ship is headed for the waterfall.
Fiction book (1990) -
From the pirate ship, the pirates toss a grapnel rope to Kezure.
Fiction book (1990) -
The radio crackles with reports from his divers on the wreck of a Ming Dynasty pirate ship.
Academic text (2011)
How Dangerous
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a ship operated by pirates' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'pirate' (a person who robs ships) with 'ship' (a vessel), following a standard modifier + head noun pattern. This literal, high-frequency combination is cross-linguistically common and should be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Pirate ship is a literal name that joins pirate and ship. It describes a ship used by pirates, sailors who sailed up to other boats to attack and 'steal' their goods, so the picture of a black-flag boat chasing another helps explain why it means 'a ship used by pirates'.