*viking*

n. [ Icel. vīkingr, fr. vīk a bay, inlet. ] One belonging to the pirate crews from among the Northmen, who plundered the coasts of Europe in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. [ 1913 Webster ]

Of grim Vikings, and the rapture
Of the sea fight, and the capture,
And the life of slavery. Longfellow. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Viking differs in meaning from sea king, with which it is frequently confounded. “The sea king was a man connected with a royal race, either of the small kings of the country, or of the Haarfager family, and who, by right, received the title of king as soon he took the command of men, although only of a single ship's crew, and without having any land or kingdom . . . Vikings were merely pirates, alternately peasants and pirates, deriving the name of viking from the vicks, wicks, or inlets, on the coast in which they harbored with their long ships or rowing galleys.” Laing. [ 1913 Webster ]