Robbin

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. Taking money or belongings from someone unlawfully, often by force or threat of violence
2. Stealing valuables from a person or place through theft, sometimes using violence or intimidation
3. Seizing goods or cash dishonestly from others, as an informal or dialect spelling of taking by theft

Etymology: Dropping the final "g" gives the informal spelling of "robbing," the present participle of "rob." The verb itself came into English in the Middle Ages from Old French "rober," which had been borrowed from a Germanic source, the Frankish "raubōn," meaning "to plunder." That root also gave German "rauben," still meaning "to rob," so the sense of seizing goods by force has stayed remarkably constant across the centuries. The same Frankish root produced "robe," which in Old French originally meant booty or spoils, not a garment. Clothing was only one later use of a word for stolen goods. The connection between a dressing gown and a raid survives only in the shared ancestry of the two words.