despoil
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
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despoilssimple
-
have despoiledperfect
-
has despoiledperfect
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am despoilingprogressive
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are despoilingprogressive
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is despoilingprogressive
-
have been despoilingperfect progressive
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has been despoilingperfect progressive
Past
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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
The slightest mistake would despoil the land and the waters, and America has seen plenty of such mistakes over the years.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2023
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
Using “ANWR” denies the refuge’s deeply wild character and serves those who would despoil this “last great wilderness.”
From Washington Post ● Jan. 7, 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
History's biggest oil spill despoils the French shoreline Like a grotesque, hook-shaped inkblot, the oil spread menacingly across the water.
From Time Magazine Archive
So he musters what heroism he can and tries to smile while the teacher despoils him of the minutes he might better be employing in play, in reading, or in work.
From The Vitalized School by Francis B. Pearson
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
Too much of Seattle has been despoiled by the greed and power of developers.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2022
The natural environment with which Native Americans had established a harmonious and symbiotic relationship, was similarly despoiled by the twin logic of expropriation and colonization that spread under the logic of manifest destiny.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 10, 2021
The shots of despoiled industrial landscapes in and around New York are mutely eloquent.
From New York Times ● Jan. 23, 2020
Von der Hagen explains these two robberies by observing that Hagan had despoiled Kriemhild of her own inheritance as well as of the wondrous hoard.
From The Nibelungenlied Revised Edition by Unknown
Plastic, along with other litter, is also despoiling the landscape and polluting our waterways.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2023
And my sister once used a sheet of carbon paper as Ken’s blanket, despoiling his face with permanent blue ink.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
Residents of Papua New Guinea have accused the mining company Rio Tinto of violating their human rights by despoiling the land where they live.
From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2022
This waste is clogging landfills, despoiling the oceans and harming wildlife.
From Reuters ● Dec. 28, 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
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.
