daylight robbery

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English

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WOTD – 28 February 2022

Etymology

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From daylight +‎ robbery, originally used literally to refer to robbery occurring in the daytime rather than at night, which was thought to be more audacious or risky.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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daylight robbery (countable and uncountable, plural daylight robberies) (idiomatic, chiefly British, informal)

  1. (uncountable) The practice of cheating or of imposing an exorbitant charge for a product or service; (countable, rare) an instance of this.
    Synonyms: highway robbery, price gouging
  2. (chiefly sports, uncountable) Conduct which unfairly deprives an opponent of an advantage or a win; (countable, rare) an instance of this.
  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see daylight,‎ robbery.
    • 2006, Sarah N. Welling, “Stop and Frisk”, in Paul Finkelman, editor, Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, volume 3, Routledge, published 2013, →ISBN, page 1570, column 1:
      A daylight robbery of a store carries with it a risk that the store clerk will be present and a confrontation will ensue, so grounds to fear a daylight robbery give rise to a reasonable inference that the defendant is armed and dangerous.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “daylight robbery, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2019; “daylight robbery, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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