mooncusser
A land-based pirate who, on dark nights along dangerous coasts, would demolish any…A land-based pirate who, on dark nights along dangerous coasts, would demolish any legitimate lighthouses or beacons, erect a decoy signal fire in a different, deliberately misleading location, and then, after having induced a shipwreck, subdue any survivors and plunder the wreckage for valuables.
Meaning
1 senses(historical, humorous, uncommon)A land-based pirate who, on dark nights along dangerous coasts, would demolish any legitimate lighthouses or beacons, erect a decoy signal fire in a different, deliberately misleading location, and then, after having induced a shipwreck, subdue any survivors and plunder the wreckage for valuables.
Origin
From moon + cusser: the strategy would not work on a moonlit night, so the would-be pirateFrom moon + cusser: the strategy would not work on a moonlit night, so the would-be pirate might be expected to curse the Moon.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: mooncussers| Singular | mooncusser |
|---|---|
| Plural | mooncussers |
regular
Synonyms
1 synonymsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.