Robbed

How to spell robbed

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce robbed

What does robbed mean?

1. verbTook property unlawfully from a person or place, typically by force or threat.

Robbed in a sentence

• Two masked men robbed the corner shop just after closing time.

• The family came home to find that burglars had robbed the house while they were away.

Where does robbed come from?

Language of origin: French

This is the past tense of 'rob', a verb English borrowed from Old French 'rober', meaning 'to plunder' or 'to steal', which the medieval French had in turn taken from a Germanic source related to the same root that gives us 'reave' and 'bereave'. The underlying Germanic word carried the sense of seizing or stripping someone of their goods, often by force, which is exactly the violent flavour that still clings to 'rob' today. It settled into English in the 1200s, and the modern spelling keeps the short vowel in 'rob' by doubling the 'b' when an ending is added, so 'rob' becomes 'robbed' rather than 'robed'. That doubling is the whole spelling trap: a single 'b' would give 'robed', which belongs to the unrelated word for putting on a robe. The same Germanic family also produced the noun 'robber' and, more distantly, the word 'robe', since a 'robe' originally meant booty, the clothing taken as spoils.

How the word is built

• rob (from Old French rober: to plunder)
• -b- (doubled consonant before suffix)
• -ed (past tense)