despoil

[dih-spoil]

verb (used with object)

1. to strip of possessions, things of value, etc.; rob; plunder; pillage.

   Synonyms: fleece, sack, rifle, divest, dispossess

despoil

/ dɪˈspɔɪl /

verb

1. (tr) to strip or deprive by force; plunder; rob; loot

Other Word Forms

• despoilment noun
• despoiler noun
• undespoiled adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of despoil¹

1175–1225; Middle English despoilen < Old French despoillier < Latin dēspoliāre to strip, rob, plunder, equivalent to dē- de- + spoliāre to plunder; spoil

Word History and Origins

Origin of despoil¹

C13: from Old French despoillier, from Latin dēspoliāre, from _de- + spoliāre to rob (esp of clothing); see _spoil

Example Sentences

Miners hauled in hydraulic equipment to dig and dredge and strip the mountains, polluting the runoff so badly that in 1874, the flatlanders who depended on that water went to court to stop the despoiling.

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“These logics oppose nations or peoples to a racialized threat — enemies from without or within — that are said to consume or despoil the resources that belong to the natives,” Callison added.

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“We are on the trail of a gang of international thieves who came to France for the purpose of despoiling our museums,” a police spokesman announced.

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Picturesque rolling hills, verdant pastures and golden fields of grain provide a deceptively bucolic setting despoiled by greed, treachery and murder.

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Metaphors may have no place at a concentration camp, but it’s hard to look at this beautiful enclosed space and not see it, perversely, as the most despoiled of Edens.

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Related Words

• denude 
• depopulate