despoil
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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despoilsimple
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despoilssimple
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have despoiledperfect
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has despoiledperfect
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am despoilingprogressive
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are despoilingprogressive
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is despoilingprogressive
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have been despoilingperfect progressive
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has been despoilingperfect progressive
Past
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despoiledsimple
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had despoiledperfect
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was despoilingprogressive
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were despoilingprogressive
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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 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
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
Yet we have made the vow; and though no other human generation hath done other than despoil, perhaps we shall be the first.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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
Nevertheless, a nation that does not respect its old men changes their nature and despoils them of their beauty and integrity.
From The Cult of Incompetence by Barstow, Beatrice
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
Tour any Caribbean island, and it becomes apparent that most of their beaches and lush forests are despoiled by plastic bottles, straws, fishing nets, plastic bags and Styrofoam containers.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 11, 2018
Sepulchral brasses must have been a great ornament to our churches before they were despoiled of their beauty by the hand of Time, and the still less sparing hand of man.
From Stones of the Temple Lessons from the Fabric and Furniture of the Church by Field, Walter
Plastic, along with other litter, is also despoiling the landscape and polluting our waterways.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2023
The world is currently producing about 400 million tonnes of plastic waste every year, with less than 10% of it being recycled, according to the UN Environment Programme, choking landfills and despoiling oceans.
From Reuters ● Nov. 12, 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
Using strong words like decay, despoiling, vanishing, and violated, Johnson connects his argument to emotions—mostly fear—the audience would feel about such destruction of nature and values.
From Textbooks ● Dec. 21, 2021
“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.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
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.
