raid
Americannoun
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raids
plural
-
a sudden assault or attack, as upon something to be seized or suppressed.
a police raid on a gambling ring.
- Synonyms:
- seizure
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Military. a sudden attack on the enemy, as by air or by a small land force.
-
a vigorous, large-scale effort to lure away a competitor's employees, members, etc.
-
Finance. a concerted attempt of speculators to force stock prices down.
verb (used with object)
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raids,
present (3rd person singular)
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raided,
past participle, past
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raiding
present participle
-
to make a raid on.
-
to steal from; loot.
a worry that the investment fund is being raided.
-
to entice away from another.
Large companies are raiding key personnel from smaller companies.
-
to indulge oneself by taking from, especially in order to eat.
raiding the cookie jar.
verb (used without object)
-
raids,
present (3rd person singular)
-
raided,
past participle, past
-
raiding
present participle
noun
verb
-
to make a raid against (a person, thing, etc)
-
to sneak into (a place) in order to take something, steal, etc
raiding the larder
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
raidsimple
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raidssimple
-
have raidedperfect
-
has raidedperfect
-
am raidingprogressive
-
are raidingprogressive
-
is raidingprogressive
-
have been raidingperfect progressive
-
has been raidingperfect progressive
Past
-
raidedsimple
-
had raidedperfect
-
was raidingprogressive
-
were raidingprogressive
-
had been raidingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of raid
1375–1425; Middle English (north and Scots ) ra ( i ) de, Old English rād expedition, literally, a riding; doublet of road
Explanation
A raid is a military attack, especially a quick surprise attack. The word comes from the military but has spread out — police might raid a shady nightclub to find bad guys, or a babysitter might raid the refrigerator. When an army launches a raid, you can say they raid, or attack abruptly. This verb can also be used to mean "search" or "enter unexpectedly," as when police officers raid a suspect's home or summer campers' raid a neighboring cabin. The military meaning is the oldest, and the word comes from the Scottish rade, "a riding" or "a journey," from the Old English rad, which is also the root of road.
Vocabulary lists containing raid
Chinese History - Introductory
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Indiana Jones Vocabulary
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Chinese History - Middle School and High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Mobile internet speeds will be slowed for 30 minutes during air raid drills in central and northern regions, as the government seeks to expose ordinary people to communications disruptions.
From Barron's ● Aug. 5, 2026
That raid was in connection to the federal investigation of AllHere, a company that L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
But executives were also distracted by other, more pressing issues, such as fending off a talent raid launched by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and fixing a worsening relationship with Microsoft, its largest investor.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 1, 2026
In March 2024, he was visited at his Surrey home by police family liaison officers who told him his mother's body had been found during a raid at Legacy's premises in Hull.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2026
A subsequent investigation revealed that the primary motivation for the raid was the possibility of forfeiting Scott’s property.
From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander
The example they set by monetizing Greek military talent would lure many others into the freebooting life and ultimately lead, seven decades later, to the enormous plundering raids of Alexander the Great.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Hagans, the union leader, said she had been advising members affected by the Supreme Court ruling to get their affairs in order in case they were swept up by immigration raids.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Lewisham Council has become the first local authority in the UK to refuse to assist Home Office immigration raids wherever "legally possible".
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
According to the Home Office, immigration enforcement teams carried out 2,715 illegal working visits and raids in London during 2025, resulting in 2,172 arrests.
From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026
They usually never led anything except toilet paper raids.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
The suspect's home in Downey, a city also in the LA-area, was raided on Monday by agents from the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and the LA County Sheriff's Department Major Crimes Bureau.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
Los Angeles police raided a CoolKicks warehouse in Santa Monica last week, where they arrested the sneaker retailer’s chief executive and three others.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026
In October, Los Angeles police raided the Santa Monica warehouse of CoolKicks, a popular sneaker reseller, while its co-founder Adeel Shams was streaming live on Whatnot.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
It looked as though the vendor had raided a secret convention of 1990s elementary-school teachers and persuaded them to turn in their uniforms.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
“The guys raided the chocolates in the con-fusion. As far as the money’s concerned, Brian Cochran has it. We’ll have some kind of drawing next week at assembly.”
From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
And Greece's Akylas had the most kaleidoscopic performance - sliding down a fireman's pole, raiding a bank vault and dancing with a Greek statue during his techno banger, Ferto.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
It would merely be a different flavor of raiding the Treasury for personal gain.
From Slate ● May 16, 2026
“A 29% rate of preretirees raiding 10% or more of savings for a family emergency means people are going into retirement short,” Judge said.
From MarketWatch ● May 14, 2026
Newspapers and television programs published every salacious detail, including texts and voice messages from the defendants that prosecutors seized after raiding their homes just days after Maradona’s death.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
Behind him, limping and complaining, came the survivors of the ill-fated raiding party.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
