One who grabs or seizes upon land (landed property or territory), esp. in an unfair or underhand manner; spec. in reference to Irish agrarian agitation, a man who takes a farm from which a tenant has been evicted.
1872. Goldw. Smith, in Fortn. Rev., March, 254. The great Elizabethan mansions … are the graceful monuments of the Tudor land-grabbers.
1880. Times, 24 Nov., 6/1. The holding had been taken by a land-grabber.
1883. Nonconf. & Indep., 28 Dec., 1176/2. Filibustering operations of ‘land-grabbers’ in New Guinea.
So Land-grabbing vbl. sb., the action or practice of a land-grabber; Land-grabbing ppl. a.
1880. Daily Tel., 27 Oct., 5/8. To protest against land grabbing and the impending arrests.
1884. Mary Hickson, Irel. in 17th C., I. Introd. 6. That selfish, land grabbing spirit.
1887. Spectator, 3 Sept., 1169. ‘Land-grabbing’ as it is called,—i. e., the taking of land from which another has been evicted.
