highway robbery

English

Alternative forms

• highway-robbery

Etymology

Compare Old English weġrēaf (“highway robbery”, literally “road-theft”).

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

highway robbery (countable and uncountable, plural highway robberies)

1. (historical, literal) The act of robbing a traveler on a public road.
2. (idiomatic) Said of excessive or exorbitant prices.

   They think they can charge $400 for a shirt? That's highway robbery.

Synonyms

• (robbing on a highway or road, obsolete): padding, high pad
• (the asking of an excessive or exorbitant price): daylight robbery, price gouging

Antonyms

• bargain, steal

Translations

The act of robbing on a public road

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 公路拦路抢劫 (gōnglùlánlùqiǎngjié)

• Finnish: maantierosvous
• French: vol de grand chemin m
• German: Straßenraub m, Wegelagerei (de) f, Straßenräuberei f
• Korean: 노상강도(路上強盜) (nosanggangdo)
• Polish: rozbój na prostej drodze (pl) m, rozbój na równej drodze (pl) m
• Romanian: tâlhărie la drumul mare f, hoție la drumul mare f
• Russian: грабёж среди́ бела́ дня (grabjóž sredí belá dnja)

The asking of an excessive or exorbitant price — see daylight robbery

See also

• highwayman