robbery
    n 1: larceny by threat of violence
    2: plundering during riots or in wartime [syn: looting,
       robbery]

Robbery \Rob"ber*y\, n.; pl. Robberies. [OF. roberie.]
   1. The act or practice of robbing; theft.
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            Thieves for their robbery have authority
            When judges steal themselves.         --Shak.
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   2. (Law) The crime of robbing. See Rob, v. t., 2.
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   Note: Robbery, in a strict sense, differs from theft, as it
         is effected by force or intimidation, whereas theft is
         committed by stealth, or privately.
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   Syn: Theft; depredation; spoliation; despoliation;
        despoilment; plunder; pillage; rapine; larceny;
        freebooting; piracy.
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Robbery
   Practised by the Ishmaelites (Gen. 16:12), the Chaldeans and
   Sabeans (Job 1:15, 17), and the men of Shechem (Judg. 9:25. See
   also 1 Sam. 27:6-10; 30; Hos. 4:2; 6:9). Robbers infested Judea
   in our Lord's time (Luke 10:30; John 18:40; Acts 5:36, 37;
   21:38; 2 Cor. 11:26). The words of the Authorized Version,
   "counted it not robbery to be equal," etc. (Phil. 2:6, 7), are
   better rendered in the Revised Version, "counted it not a prize
   to be on an equality," etc., i.e., "did not look upon equality
   with God as a prize which must not slip from his grasp" = "did
   not cling with avidity to the prerogatives of his divine
   majesty; did not ambitiously display his equality with God."
   
     "Robbers of churches" should be rendered, as in the Revised
   Version, "of temples." In the temple at Ephesus there was a
   great treasure-chamber, and as all that was laid up there was
   under the guardianship of the goddess Diana, to steal from such
   a place would be sacrilege (Acts 19:37).
   

ROBBERY, crimes. The felonious and forcible taking from the person of 
another, goods or money to any value, by violence or putting him in fear. 4 
Bl. Com. 243 1 Bald. 102. 
     2. By "taking from the person" is meant not only the immediate taking 
from his person, but also from his presence when it is done with violence 
and against his consent. 1 Hale, P. C. 533; 2 Russ. Crimes, 61. The taking 
must be by violence or putting the owner in fear, but both these 
circumstances need not concur, for if a man should be knocked down and then 
robbed while be is insensible, the offence is still a robbery. 4 Binn. R. 
379. And if the party be put in fear by threats and then robbed, it is not 
necessary there should be any greater violence. 
     3. This offence differs from a larceny from the person in this, that in 
the latter, there is no violence, while in the former the crime is 
incomplete without an actual or constructive force. Id. Vide 2 Swift's Dig. 
298. Prin. Pen. Law, ch. 22, Sec. 4, p. 285; and Carrying away; Invito 
Domino; Larceny; Taking.