A robber is someone who steals from others, especially using force or threats. When you hear about a bank robber, that's someone who demands money from a bank, often threatening employees or customers to get what they want. A robber might use intimidation, weapons, or the element of surprise to take something that doesn't belong to them.

A robber is different from other kinds of thieves. A pickpocket secretly takes your wallet without you noticing, but a robber confronts victims directly. Throughout history, highway robbers (or highwaymen) would stop travelers on roads and demand their valuables. Today, robbers might target stores, homes, or people on the street.

In stories and games, robbers often appear as villains who must be caught, like the robbers in Home Alone or in the kids' game of cops and robbers. In the classic game of Cops and Robbers, one team plays the robbers trying to evade capture while the other team plays the cops trying to catch them.