- rob (v.)
- late 12c., from Old French rober, from a Germanic source (cf. Old High German roubon "to rob," roub "spoil, plunder;" Old English reafian, source of the reave in bereave; see reave), from Proto-Germanic *raubojanan, from *raub- "to break."
Lord, hou schulde God approve þat þou robbe Petur, and gif þis robbere to Poule in þe name of Crist? [Wyclif, c.1380]
To rob the cradle is attested from 1864 in relation to drafting young men in the American Civil War; by 1949 in romantic sense. Related: Robbed; robbing.