How to Use robber baron in a Sentence

robber baron

noun
Definition of robber baronnext
  • Tim Scully and Nicholas Sand—were bankrolled by the freaky scions of the Mellon robber baron dynasty.
    — Wired, 28 July 2022
  • Meanwhile, the Northeastern robber barons who owned the mills along the river .
    — Rashad Shabazz, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Jan. 2020
  • Ifirst became aware of the work of French designer Henri Samuel in the mid-1980s, in what might be called his robber baron phase.
    — David Netto, Town & Country, 15 Mar. 2018
  • So all these comments about ‘the robber barons are going to come in and steal our property’ are not true.
    — Karen Berkowitz, chicagotribune.com, 12 July 2018
  • Its logo is sketch of Trump, looking like a robber baron in a top hat running with a bag of money in his arm.
    — Anthony Man, Sun-Sentinel.com, 25 Jan. 2018
  • Capitalists aren’t just robber barons and the very rich.
    — Lily Rothman, Time, 5 Feb. 2018
  • And there’s another lesson from the robber barons—one that some of you and your peers have already embraced.
    — The Economist, 20 Jan. 2018
  • Compared with these finance guys, the robber barons of the past look like Johnny Appleseed.
    — The New Yorker, 4 May 2020
  • The guest rooms are outfitted with furnishings that would fit well in the backwoods manor of a Gilded Age robber baron.
    — Boyce Upholt, Outside Online, 10 Aug. 2022
  • The house is a 21st-century version of a Fifth Avenue robber baron mansion: enormous and in your face.
    — Mark Rozzo, Town & Country, 2 Apr. 2023
  • In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, America had reined in the behemoths built by robber barons.
    — The Economist, 31 Aug. 2019
  • Saddling up to one of these high-walled behemoths, all men–whether a rummy, rabble rouser, a robber baron or a Roosevelt—were equal.
    — Daniel Arnold, Bon Appetit, 10 Oct. 2017
  • The vision of an aging robber baron named Henry Flagler, the route took thousands of workers seven years to complete.
    — Tony Perrottet, WSJ, 15 Aug. 2022
  • Like the preps, punks, and robber barons before us, you Fresh Princes of Bit Air must understand that our lifestyle has rules, and any deviation from them could prove ruinous.
    — Mike Albo and Amanda Duarte, Town & Country, 6 Mar. 2018
  • Meanwhile, the Northeastern robber barons who owned the mills along the river built majestic music halls to resemble those in New York and Boston.
    — Rashad Shabazz, The Conversation, 27 Jan. 2020
  • The hotel was named for Collis Huntington, one of the Big Four railroad tycoons often derided as robber barons.
    — Sam Whiting, San Francisco Chronicle, 20 Mar. 2023
  • As the scion of one of the most important oil families from America’s robber baron past, Getty is a throwback to an era of loopy, over-the-top, fashion-embracing heiresses.
    — Meredith Haggerty, Town & Country, 20 Jan. 2022
  • The charges were dropped and Flagler, bristling at accusations of acting like a heartless robber baron, improved conditions, but the six-day work week on the Keys remained grueling.
    — Tony Perrottet, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 Feb. 2022
  • The lone passenger and his bicycle felt like a 19th century robber baron in his own private railroad carriage.
    — Steve Rubenstein, SFChronicle.com, 11 July 2020
  • And nonprofits can behave just as poorly as any rapacious robber baron.
    — Darius Tahir, Fortune, 18 May 2022
  • The new robber barons of the 21st century … are trying to sell the idea of a third category as something that will allow more flexibility than employment.
    — Los Angeles Times, 29 Aug. 2019
  • This sweeping history of the decades after the Civil War decries the spoliations White sees everywhere among robber barons and corrupt politicians.
    — New York Times, 28 Sep. 2017
  • This vintage rail car sleeps two in robber baron splendor, although the accommodations are, by modern standards, compact.
    — Richard A. Marini, San Antonio Express-News, 2 Apr. 2021
  • Today’s corporate bosses aren’t the robber barons or country-club networkers of yesteryear.
    — Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, WSJ, 12 July 2017
  • The steel magnate and other robber barons warded off political challenges to their monopolies for decades before Woodrow Wilson ended them.
    — The Economist, 29 Aug. 2019
  • Stories about American capitalism tend to have a recognizable villain: the robber baron, the business tycoon, the financial investor, your boss.
    — Jane Hu, The Atlantic, 26 May 2022
  • At the very top of this Gilded Age rode the robber barons—the first expert manipulators of the corporation, one of the industrial revolution’s most powerful innovations.
    — Gregory Crouch, WSJ, 7 Jan. 2019
  • New-economy behemoths are exercising a market dominance not seen since America’s robber barons.
    — The Economist, 3 May 2018
  • Like 19th century robber barons, today’s tech titans atone their excesses by offering handouts to a public torn between admiration and resentment, between capitalist striving and the daily grind of precarity.
    — Jacob Silverman, Longreads, 13 Mar. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'robber baron.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: