robber

noun

Etymology: Inherited from Middle English robbour, robbere, either directly taken from or from a calque of Old French robeor. Equivalent to rob + -er. Compare reaver (“robber, plunderer”), a native English word derived from Proto-Germanic *raubārijaz that is ultimately of more or less the same composition as robber. And compare rover (“a pirate”), another word of the same composition.

1. A person who robs.
2. An animal who robs.

   “I remember as a boy in my native land the bad name the common magpie (Pica caudata) had as a destroyer of chickens, and a robber of nests.”