What does highwayman mean?
A highwayman was a robber who preyed on people travelling by road, particularly stagecoach passengers and other travellers whose routes crossed isolated countryside. The term evokes the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when mounted robbers might stop coaches, threaten passengers, and steal cash or valuables before escaping. Although the word can still be used generically for a road robber, it is most common in historical accounts, folklore, novels, and adventure stories. Its familiar associations include masks, horses, pistols, lonely roads, and attacks on stagecoaches. The expression carries a strongly romanticized as well as threatening quality: highwaymen appear as dangerous outlaws, but they can also be portrayed as anti-establishment figures or clever folk heroes. In modern usage, it is often deliberately evocative rather than a precise legal description of a robber.
nounA highwayman is a robber, especially one who attacked travellers or stagecoaches on the road, often from horseback and typically while disguised.
- A robber who attacked travellers, stagecoaches, or other vehicles on the road, especially in former centuries when such travellers commonly carried money and goods.
"The highwayman held the stagecoach at gunpoint and demanded the passengers' valuables."
"Travelers in the eighteenth century were advised to beware of highwaymen on lonely roads."
"The story portrays a highwayman who robs a wealthy merchant while the merchant's carriage is stopped."
The plural is formed by changing the -man ending to -men.
"The novel follows the exploits of several notorious highwaymen."
Highwaymen turned road travel into a dangerous gamble, making the old highways famous for sudden masked riders and desperate robberies.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does highwayman come from?
Highwayman comes from highway, meaning a main road or high road, combined with man. The word highway developed in Middle English from high and way, and the compound highwayman became especially associated with mounted robbers who stopped travellers and stagecoaches. Its history is closely connected with the older road culture of stagecoach travel, inns, tolls, and isolated routes.
How highwayman is actually used
The word is chiefly historical and literary today. It can be used broadly for a robber of travellers, but it most strongly evokes mounted or road-based robbery from the period before railways and widespread mechanized transport.
Easily confused with highwayman
A highwayman traditionally operated on roads and targeted travellers or coaches, while a bandit is a more general term for an armed robber, often associated with organized groups or rugged terrain.