robber baronn.

1829 W. Scott Anne of Geierstein II. ix. 281 How is he to get through this country, so beset with wandering soldiers, robber barons,..and roguish Italians?

1879 A. Taylor Guienne xi. 115 Castles and towers..which once were the homes of haughty robber barons.

1904 C. Morris Hist. of World ii. i. i. 349 The protecting lords were often as bad as the robber barons.

1962 J. Braine Life at Top x. 131 A robber baron of the Middle Ages.

1992 Eng. Hist. Rev. 107 284 De Lisle's clerical status gave him a distinct advantage over other, secular ‘robber barons’.

1874 Rep. Select Comm. Transportation-routes to Seaboard 662 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (43rd Congr., 1st Sess.: Senate Rep. 307, Pt. 2) III Vanderbilt, the robber baron of our modern feudalism.

1882 C. Schurz in Boston Herald Suppl. 30 June 1/3 The modern robber barons, who, by corporate rascality..manage to plunder at will not only their fellow-gamblers, but the innocent bona fide investors in corporate enterprises.

1905 D. G. Phillips Plum Tree 195 He was..about the greediest and cruelest ‘robber baron’ in the West.

1957 Times Lit. Suppl. 8 Nov. 670/3 She builds up an immensely lucrative cosmetic business, backed by a robber-baron tycoon named Jim Seymour.

1979 Time 2 Apr. 45/1 For years psychiatrists have also been regarded as medicine's robber barons.

1996 Observer 29 Dec. 16/7 The cynical notion that robber barons do a country good..is a myth that must be debunked.