1526 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1869) I. 228 Of the grete inconuen[ien]tis committit be Henry Bardiner..be way of pirating and as ane sey theiff.

1612 T. Shelton tr. M. de Cervantes Don-Quixote: Pt. 1 iv. xiii. 464 They came abroad a pyrating with the other Turks.

1662 Kirkcaldy Burgh Rec. 21 July If the said stock employed upone shipping..be lost by ship wrack, pirrating, sea hazard or uther accident.

1697 tr. Countess D'Aunoy Trav. (1706) 77 One day, as Meluza came from Pyrating, [etc.].

1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 221 We resolved to live there, as in a Retirement, and plant in the Country, as private Men, and give over our Trade of Pyrating.

1754 Capt. Cope New Hist. East-Indies xiv. 227 This Province,..for the most Part, drive [sic] the old Trade of thieving and pirating, for they plunder all whom they can overcome, on both Elements.

1852 De Bow's Rev. Aug. 176 Some efficient means..should be adopted, to prevent the pirating of timber upon the public lands.

1930 A. Ransome Swallows & Amazons xxiii. 249 She told him how they made a chart so that they could come and find the treasure when they were tired of pirating.

1996 A. Outwater Water 15 The Indians, pauperized and debilitated by disease, had turned to onshore pirating.

1774 F. Hargrave Argument in Def. Lit. Prop. 32 If the right of printing books should once be declared common by a judicial opinion..pirating would then become general.

1774 A. Donaldson & J. Donaldson Case of Appellants 5 From the Erection of the Stationers Company, Copies were entered as Property, and Pirating was punished.

1829 Times June 22 3/3 The inventor has been at an enormous expense in designing patterns, some of which do not succeed, and which the persons who are in the habit of pirating, do not think it worth their while to copy.

1896 Philos. Rev. 5 583 (note) Kant on the pirating of books.

1902 Daily Chron. 18 Dec. 3/2 The pirating of woodcuts in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

1991 Washington Post 14 July a6/5 Congressional concerns about..weapons exports and pirating of trademarks, patents and other ‘intellectual property’.

1923 D. H. Smith United States Employment Service i. 23 Other problems were touched upon at this time: the ‘pirating’ of labor, advertising, labor disturbances, [etc.].

1942 Times 28 Sept. 7/3 Through the failure of the Government to set up any definitive plan for the distribution of labour, pirating of workers is going on on a considerable scale.

1998 Ottawa Citizen (Nexis) 27 May g10 To minimize pirating of employees, some companies have adopted a cautious approach requiring such things as employment compensation agreements.

1686 T. Otway tr. S. de Broë Hist. Triumvirates II. xix. 572 Many light Brigantines or pirating Boats called Liburnicae.

1731 J. Gay Let. to Swift 1 Dec. I have had an injunction for me against pirating-booksellers.

1799 C. Ludger Reconciliation v. iii. 107 Confound your pirating crew.

1846 J. Breakenridge Crusades & Other Poems 153 I want not your pity, you pirating knave!

1911 J. London Adventure xvii. 239 I've come to find out whether I'm skipper of the Flibberty or that chit of yours with her pirating, heathen boat's crew.

1995 Current Digest Post-Soviet Press (Nexis) 47 21 85% of the compact discs and cassettes of American music that are sold in Russia's large cities are produced by pirating organizations.