Definition
A robber is a person who commits robbery — that is, one who feloniously and forcibly takes goods or money from the person of another by violence or by putting that person in fear. The term is a status designation: it describes the actor defined by the completed act of robbery, not merely someone who takes property without permission.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A person who robs; also loosely applied to an animal that takes something.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One who robs; in law, one who feloniously takes goods or money from the person of another by violence or by putting him in fear.
The common and legal meanings are closer here than for many criminal-law terms, but the gap matters at the margin. Ordinary speech uses "robber" and "thief" interchangeably for anyone who takes what is not theirs. In law, the distinction is structural: a thief takes without the victim's awareness or presence; a robber takes by force or intimidation directly against a person. Calling a pickpocket a robber is colloquially forgivable — legally, it is wrong.
Common Confusion
ROBBER vs. THIEF: Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) explicitly flags this confusion — the term is not in law synonymous with "thief." Theft (or larceny) requires only the taking of another's property with intent to permanently deprive. Robbery adds the elements of force, violence, or putting the victim in fear, and requires the taking to occur from the person or in the victim's presence. A thief who is never seen commits larceny; a robber confronts the victim. The distinction carries significant consequences: robbery is uniformly treated as a more serious offense, typically a felony, while theft may be graded by value.
ROBBER vs. BURGLAR: Burglary involves unlawful entry into a structure with intent to commit a crime inside. A burglar may never encounter the occupant. A robber, by definition, does. The two terms describe different offense structures, though a single criminal episode can involve elements of both.
Why It Matters in Research
ROBBER is primarily a derivative term — its legal weight comes from its parent offense, ROBBERY. Researchers who encounter "robber" in historical sources should treat it as a signal to examine the underlying robbery definition operative at that time and place, because what qualifies as robbery has evolved considerably.
At common law, robbery required a taking from the person with violence or intimidation. Modern statutes in most U.S. jurisdictions have expanded and graded the offense — distinguishing simple robbery from aggravated robbery (often involving a weapon or serious bodily harm), and sometimes from armed robbery as a distinct statutory category. The actor designated "robber" in an 1850 case may have been convicted under elements materially different from those in a modern aggravated robbery statute.
Historical sources present a secondary trap: the terms "robber," "thief," and even "brigand" or "bandit" were not always applied with legal precision in older reports, treatises, and digests. When reading pre-twentieth-century legal materials, verify whether "robber" is used as a technical legal designation or as general moral opprobrium for any property criminal. Burrill's entry — which traces the Law French root and medieval forms (robbe, robbans) rather than defining the actor — is a reminder that the term's oldest corpus appearances are linguistic rather than definitional, and researchers working with Year Books or early English records will need to trace meaning through the robbery offense itself.
For corpus researchers: entries indexed under ROBBER will typically cross-reference or duplicate material found under ROBBERY. If a research question concerns the elements of the offense, navigate directly to ROBBERY. If the question concerns the capacity, status, or liability of the person (e.g., whether a robber can be held jointly liable with confederates, or what defenses are available), ROBBER as an actor-status term becomes more directly relevant.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are notably thin on ROBBER as an independent entry, which itself is informative. Black's first edition offers a single sentence. Black's second edition adds the only substantive doctrinal contribution in the set: the explicit disavowal of synonymy with "thief," supported by case references. Bouvier's echoes the standard common-law formulation — felonious, forcible taking from the person by violence or fear — which tracks Blackstone's Commentaries closely and reflects the settled common-law definition that American jurisdictions inherited.
Burrill's entry is an outlier: rather than defining the actor, it traces the Law French and Anglo-Norman linguistic roots of the verb "to rob" and its inflected forms, citing Britton. This approach is characteristic of Burrill's historical method but offers little definitional guidance. Researchers using Burrill for this term should understand they are getting etymology and paleographic context, not a working legal definition.
The dictionaries agree on the core: a robber is defined by violence or intimidation against a person, distinguishing the offense from mere theft. None of the historical sources addresses modern statutory gradations (armed robbery, aggravated robbery), which are developments of the twentieth century and require consultation of current statutory materials.
Jurisdictional Note
Robbery and its actor "robber" are defined by statute in every U.S. jurisdiction, and the elements vary. Some states define degrees of robbery based on weapon use or injury; others use "armed robbery" as a distinct offense. The common-law baseline — force or fear, taking from the person — remains the foundation, but researchers should not assume uniform elements across jurisdictions or time periods when working with the term in primary sources.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Robbery; Theft and Larceny; Crimes Against Persons.