cradle robber

See also: cradle-robber

English

Alternative forms

• cradle-robber

Pronunciation

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Noun

cradle robber (plural cradle robbers)

1. (idiomatic, derogatory) A person who marries or becomes romantically involved with someone who is much younger, or who employs or otherwise engages a young person for a purpose inappropriate for his or her age.
   • 1914, Richard Harding Davis, The Man Who Could Not Lose:

     "And no mother," he shouted, "can call ME a ‘fortune-hunter’ and a ‘cradle-robber’ and think I'll make good by marrying her daughter!"

   • 2006 October 29, Francine Maroukian, “Modern Love: We Lived in the Present, Then the Future Arrived”, in New York Times:

     I was a 50-year-old woman; he was a 25-year-old man. . . . I was out of my pajamas and into a short skirt before you could say “cradle robber”.

Synonyms

• cradle snatcher

Hyponyms

• cougar (North America, slang)
• manther (North America, slang)
• korephile

Related terms

• rob the cradle

Translations

cradle snatcher — see cradle snatcher