plunder
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
verb
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to steal (valuables, goods, sacred items, etc) from (a town, church, etc) by force, esp in time of war; loot
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(tr) to rob or steal (choice or desirable things) from (a place)
to plunder an orchard
noun
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anything taken by plundering or theft; booty
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the act of plundering; pillage
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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plunderernoun
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plunderableadjective
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plunderousadjective
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unplunderedadjective
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unplunderousadjective
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plunderinglyadverb
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unplunderouslyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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plundersimple
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plunderssimple
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have plunderedperfect
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has plunderedperfect
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am plunderingprogressive
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are plunderingprogressive
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is plunderingprogressive
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have been plunderingperfect progressive
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has been plunderingperfect progressive
Past
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plunderedsimple
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had plunderedperfect
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was plunderingprogressive
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were plunderingprogressive
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had been plunderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of plunder
First recorded in 1620–30, plunder is from the Dutch word plunderen
Explanation
Plunder can mean stolen goods or money obtained illegally, or the act of taking those things. A burglar might plunder a jewelry store and then sneak off with her plunder. Plunder is an old Middle High German word that originally meant "household goods and clothes": in other words, your stuff. During the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), English speakers acquired this word while fighting in the land that is today Germany, but with the added meaning of taking the plunder as, well, plunder. As both a noun and verb, a synonym for plunder is loot.
Vocabulary lists containing plunder
Words Every Pirate Should Know
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The Odyssey
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 19–24
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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:
Navy engaged with the British yet again, it also once more exposed American ships traveling Mediterranean to plunder from Barbary pirates, later resulting in the Second Barbary War.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
Najib, who has been convicted in multiple cases, has been jailed and fined $2.8 billion for his role in the plunder.
From Barron's ● May 15, 2026
And hey, did you know that the word “raptor”—which is often used to describe birds of prey—comes from the Latin verb rapio, which means to plunder, rob, ravish, or abduct?
From Slate ● Feb. 21, 2026
One of the downsides of our movie-mad filmmakers — the Quentin Tarantinos who happily plunder from cinema’s illustrious past — is that their worldview can be myopic beyond what’s up there on the screen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
It seemed to me that our own rules redoubled plunder.
From "Between the World and Me" by Ta-Nehisi Coates
A blend of Islamic and Hindu beliefs has long served as a conservation code, with supernatural guardians believed to punish anyone who plunders the forest for greed.
From Barron's ● Apr. 28, 2026
It has always been a taxing job, she says, but conditions have lately made it downright impossible, as staffing shortages nearly double her workload and a cost-of-living crisis plunders her modest paycheck.
From New York Times ● Jul. 1, 2022
The narrator thinks about the way he plunders the lives of those around him.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 13, 2018
It helps that Lothar Koenigs, conducting, plunders the score for every last ounce of feeling, exceptionally delivered by the WNO orchestra.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 17, 2013
The sounds produced were exactly similar to those often heard in the depths of the American forest, when the dread crotalus plunders the nest of the Virginian nightingale.
From The Quadroon Adventures in the Far West by Reid, Mayne
Hermann Goering, a top Nazi official, plundered Goudstikker's entire collection when the art dealer fled to England in 1940.
From Barron's ● May 11, 2026
What rankles more is his only international T20 appearance three weeks later, when Ireland plundered 52 from his four overs.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026
Kyiv plundered warehouses for veteran Soviet antiaircraft guns and fitted heavy machine guns, some almost a century old, with thermal imaging systems.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 2026
Kane plundered six goals in just five games against Norwich, including a pair of braces in 2015-16.
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2026
All had been broken and plundered; but beside the shattered lid of one there lay the remains of a book.
From "The Fellowship of the Ring" by J.R.R. Tolkien
"If Auroville," which has a big international profile and has been praised by UNESCO, "does not hold out against the plundering and devastation of our natural resources, then we are all doomed," he said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026
It’s all chintzy and campy, the plundering of low-hanging fruit.
From Slate ● Jun. 11, 2026
This practice stood in contrast to the prohibition against plundering civilian property on land because of the recognition of the integral relationship between maritime commerce and war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
These serum-obsessed 12-year-olds have been filmed plundering beauty stores — spoiling samples, terrorizing grown-up shoppers and hoarding expensive products formulated for mature skin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2024
When she was a woman grown, well past thirty as she reckoned it, with one husband buried—but the master had given her another—armies, plundering and burning, had come from the North to set them free.
From "Go Tell It on the Mountain" by James Baldwin
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.
