highway robbery

English

Alternative forms

• highway-robbery

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio (Australia):

  (file)

Noun

highway robbery (countable and uncountable, plural highway robberies)

1. (historical, literal) The act of robbing a traveler on a public road.

   Synonyms: high pad, padding

2. (idiomatic, usually uncountable) Excessive or exorbitant prices.

   Synonyms: daylight robbery, price gouging

   Coordinate terms: bargain, steal

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

Translations

act of robbing on a public road

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 攔路搶劫 / 拦路抢劫 (lánlù qiǎngjié), 路劫 (lùjié), 劫道 (zh) (jiédào)

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

asking of an excessive or exorbitant price — see daylight robbery

See also

• highwayman