despoil
Americanverb (used with object)
-
despoils,
present (3rd person singular)
-
despoiled,
past participle, past
-
despoiling
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
despoilsimple
-
despoilssimple
-
have despoiledperfect
-
has despoiledperfect
-
am despoilingprogressive
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are despoilingprogressive
-
is despoilingprogressive
-
have been despoilingperfect progressive
-
has been despoilingperfect progressive
Past
-
despoiledsimple
-
had despoiledperfect
-
was despoilingprogressive
-
were despoilingprogressive
-
had been despoilingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of despoil
1175–1225; Middle English despoilen < Old French despoillier < Latin dēspoliāre to strip, rob, plunder, equivalent to dē- de- + spoliāre to plunder; see spoil
Explanation
Despoil is to spoil, only worse. You may spoil a dinner party by being late, but we all despoil the earth with pollution and over-consumption. The Latin root of despoil meant "to strip or rob" and although despoil is used more broadly now, it has that sense within it. When we despoil the earth, we rob it of its beauty and strip it of its natural resources. In the same way, an invading army might despoil a village, wrecking houses and stealing valuables.
Vocabulary lists containing despoil
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Lyndon B. Johnson on "The Great Society" (1964)
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 6
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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:
Today, that environmental perspective, that sense of how we humans continue to despoil our planet in an ever more fossil-fuelized and dangerous fashion, is simply inescapable.
From Salon ● Dec. 9, 2023
He calmly rejects criticism that his vision would despoil the biosphere.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
The project would despoil a mostly pristine wilderness area.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2022
That measure is opposed by members of the local Mura tribe, who say mining would despoil the natural habitat upon which they depend.
From Reuters ● Mar. 23, 2022
The skull seemed to grimace in defiance, daring a stranger to despoil the royal treasures.
From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander
Unfortunately, your visit to Glacier NP was an example of exactly the kind of behavior that despoils and degrades our parks and wildernesses.
From New York Times ● Sep. 20, 2016
There are many benefits of not selling water in disposable bottles in national parks, including reducing trash at parks, carbon emissions and the litter that despoils our parks, landscape and waterways.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 24, 2015
Roger is jealous when Jane flirts with Manishewitz Jr.—“I thought you liked the crabs rangoon here!”—and despoils her new, Roger-free apartment accordingly.
From Slate ● May 14, 2012
Stinking garbage and human excrement despoils Thailand's majestic River of Kings.
From Time Magazine Archive
"He sends flowers to her as he does to me—only he sends me a bouquet, while for her he despoils the gardens of Sairmeuse."
From The Honor of the Name by Émile Gaboriau
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.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2023
Playing the last days of Romanian communism as frenzied farce, Lucian Pintilie’s “The Oak” is set in a world so despoiled a Hieronymus Bosch landscape might seem bucolic by comparison.
From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2023
Morton, Douglas even went as far as arguing for standing for organizations to sue on behalf of nature when it was “about to be despoiled, defaced, or invaded by roads and bulldozers.”
From Washington Post ● Jan. 26, 2023
Too much of Seattle has been despoiled by the greed and power of developers.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2022
That evening, on his return from business, he found his carnation-bed despoiled, and the tiny imprint of slippered feet silently bearing witness to the small thief.
From Donahoe's Magazine, Volume XV, No. 3 Volume XV (Jan 1886-Jul 1886) by Various
Plastic, along with other litter, is also despoiling the landscape and polluting our waterways.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2023
I just wish I hadn’t let my fandom lead me into the fluorescent-lit land of plot despoiling.
From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2022
This waste is clogging landfills, despoiling the oceans and harming wildlife.
From Reuters ● Dec. 28, 2021
The catalog of ills is long: there is the decay of the centers and the despoiling of the suburbs.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
But in the background of all the conversations among the visitors to the island was indignation at the despoiling of the roads they had traveled.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
