moss-troop·er

(môs′tro͞o′pər, mŏs′-)

1. One of a band of raiders operating in the bogs on the borders of England and Scotland during the 1600s.

2. A plunderer; a marauder.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

moss-trooper - a marauder and plunderer (originally operating in the bogs between England and Scotland)

marauder, piranha, predator, vulture - someone who attacks in search of booty

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Little Walter's father was a kindly Scots lawyer, but he came of a good old Border family, "A hardy race who never shrunk from war."* Among his forbears had been wild moss-troopers and cattle-reivers, lairds of their own lands, as powerful as kings in their own countryside.

View in context

The door panels were in a normal state of smash, but the frame of the door resisted all besiegers, and behind it the owner carried on his varied pursuits--much in the same state of mind, I should fancy, as a border-farmer lived in, in the days of the moss-troopers, when his hold might be summoned or his cattle carried off at any minute of night or day.

View in context

(Nine moss-troopers - a term for cattle rustlers - were also hanged that day).

How 14 witches and a wizard were executed on Newcastle Town Moor; On a grim day in 1650, how 14 women and a man were executed after a major witchcraft trial in Newcastle

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