daylight robbery

From daylight +‎ robbery, originally used literally to refer to robbery occurring in the daytime rather than at night, which was thought to be more audacious or risky.[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌdeɪlaɪt ˈɹɒb(ə)ɹi/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌdeɪˌlaɪt ˈɹɑb(ə)ɹi/

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• Hyphenation: day‧light rob‧bery

daylight robbery (countable and uncountable, plural daylight robberies) (idiomatic, chiefly British, informal)

1. (uncountable) The practice of cheating or of imposing an exorbitant charge for a product or service; (countable, rare) an instance of this.

   Synonyms: highway robbery, price gouging

2. (chiefly sports, uncountable) Conduct which unfairly deprives an opponent of an advantage or a win; (countable, rare) an instance of this.
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see daylight,‎ robbery.
   • 2006, Sarah N. Welling, “Stop and Frisk”, in Paul Finkelman, editor, Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, volume 3, Routledge, published 2013, →ISBN, page 1570, column 1:

     A daylight robbery of a store carries with it a risk that the store clerk will be present and a confrontation will ensue, so grounds to fear a daylight robbery give rise to a reasonable inference that the defendant is armed and dangerous.

• Daylight Robbery (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia