highway robbery

English

Alternative forms

• highway-robbery

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (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

(the asking of an excessive or exorbitant price): daylight robbery

Antonyms

• bargain, steal

Translations

The act of robbing on a public road

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 公路拦路抢劫 (gōnglùlánlùqiǎngjié)

• French: vol de grand chemin m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: tâlhărie de drum mare f, hoție la drum mare f
• Russian: грабёж среди́ бела́ дня (ru) (grabjóž sredí belá dnja)

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

See also

• highwayman