highwayman
/ˈhʌɪweɪmən
/noun (plural highwaymen) historical
A man, typically on horseback, who held up travellers at gunpoint in order to rob them.Eighteenth century playwrights and novelists often made their hero a criminal, a highwayman or confidence trickster....
- At first glance, the highwaymen and payroll robbers of early twentieth-century Chicago seem cool, deliberate, and calculated.
- The two had met on the road a few months before, and shared some adventures involving various bands of brigands and highwaymen.
Synonyms
bandit, brigand, robber, outlaw, ruffian, desperado, plunderer, marauder, raider, ravager, pillager, freebooter, criminal, thug, gangster;
Spanish bandolero, ladrone;
Indian dacoit
informal, dated knight of the road, footpad, land pirate, tobyman
archaic reaver, snaphance, thief errant
Scottish archaic mosstrooper
