noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A land-based pirate who, on dark nights along dangerous coasts, would demolish any legitimate lighthouses or beacons, erect a decoy signal fire in a different, deliberately misleading location, and then, after having induced a shipwreck, subdue any survivors and plunder the wreckage for valuables. historical, humorous, uncommon

Synonyms

All synonyms

wreckerwrecker

Etymology

From moon + cusser: the strategy would not work on a moonlit night, so the would-be pirate might be expected to curse the Moon.

Related phrases

signal fire

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.