bandit
/ˈbandɪt
/- The still extensive forests, swamps, and reed-edged lakes provided cover for gangs of bandits, robbers, and deserters.
- He deserts from the army, and joins her gang of smugglers / bandits as an outlaw.
- When they finally got used to things enough to settle into small villages, they decided they needed protectors to save them from the outlaws and bandits that roamed the lawless land.
Synonyms
- At that moment I saw the two Thunderbolts flying ahead of them and I reported bandits approaching.
- My tail gunner called out another two bandits coming in again in trail from the low six o'clock position.
Derivatives
banditry
/ noun ...- We are in a situation in which there is a virtual breakdown of law and order with the resultant general banditry and chaos.
- Yes, the movie sees the rule of law as making the difference between civilization and banditry, but that doesn't stop it from celebrating the violent and unauthorized murder of the villain by the hero.
- Continued banditry and firefights plague many of the provinces.
Origin
Late 16th century: from Italian bandito, 'banned', past participle of bandire 'to ban'.
ban from Old English:
In Old English this meant ‘to summon by popular proclamation’. The word is Germanic and also passed into French where it had the sense ‘proclamation, summons, banishment’. This lies behind abandon (Late Middle English) based on the Old French phrase a bandon ‘at one's disposal, under one's jurisdiction’; and banal (mid 18th century) which originally related to feudal service and meant ‘compulsory’. From this came a notion of ‘common to everyone’ and so ‘ordinary and everyday’. The marriage banns (Middle English) read in church also come from the sense ‘proclamation’. Bandit (late 16th century) comes from Italian bandito a ‘banned person’, and banish (Late Middle English) comes from the same root.