raid
Americannoun
-
raids
plural
-
a sudden assault or attack, as upon something to be seized or suppressed.
a police raid on a gambling ring.
- Synonyms:
- seizure
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Military. a sudden attack on the enemy, as by air or by a small land force.
-
a vigorous, large-scale effort to lure away a competitor's employees, members, etc.
-
Finance. a concerted attempt of speculators to force stock prices down.
verb (used with object)
-
raids,
present (3rd person singular)
-
raided,
past participle, past
-
raiding
present participle
-
to make a raid on.
-
to steal from; loot.
a worry that the investment fund is being raided.
-
to entice away from another.
Large companies are raiding key personnel from smaller companies.
-
to indulge oneself by taking from, especially in order to eat.
raiding the cookie jar.
verb (used without object)
-
raids,
present (3rd person singular)
-
raided,
past participle, past
-
raiding
present participle
noun
verb
-
to make a raid against (a person, thing, etc)
-
to sneak into (a place) in order to take something, steal, etc
raiding the larder
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
raidsimple
-
raidssimple
-
have raidedperfect
-
has raidedperfect
-
am raidingprogressive
-
are raidingprogressive
-
is raidingprogressive
-
have been raidingperfect progressive
-
has been raidingperfect progressive
Past
-
raidedsimple
-
had raidedperfect
-
was raidingprogressive
-
were raidingprogressive
-
had been raidingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of raid
1375–1425; Middle English (north and Scots ) ra ( i ) de, Old English rād expedition, literally, a riding; doublet of road
Explanation
A raid is a military attack, especially a quick surprise attack. The word comes from the military but has spread out — police might raid a shady nightclub to find bad guys, or a babysitter might raid the refrigerator. When an army launches a raid, you can say they raid, or attack abruptly. This verb can also be used to mean "search" or "enter unexpectedly," as when police officers raid a suspect's home or summer campers' raid a neighboring cabin. The military meaning is the oldest, and the word comes from the Scottish rade, "a riding" or "a journey," from the Old English rad, which is also the root of road.
Vocabulary lists containing raid
Chinese History - Introductory
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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:
The attacks culminated in an RSF raid on 8 June.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
In this week’s episode of Amicus, Dahlia Lithwick talks about the raid of Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s D.C. home with Andrew Weissmann, former chief of the Fraud Section at the Department of Justice.
From Slate ● Oct. 22, 2026
The writer Stefan Zweig, who had emigrated to England from Austria in 1934 after a police raid, returned to warn his Jewish friends three years later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
Air raid alerts, which sound around the clock and can last hours, complicate repairs, he added.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
There had never been an air raid in Port Harcourt and it made no sense that there would be one now, when Port Harcourt was about to fall and the vandals were shelling close by.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Many Hindu families in Ohio live with fear—fear of ICE raids, profiling based on accent or appearance and the constant anxiety of family separation,” Pyakurel wrote.
From Slate ● Oct. 23, 2026
An under-appreciated factor hurting them as much as high mortgage rates and inflation has been immigration raids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
Eisenkot vowed to use "an iron fist" against anyone acting outside the law and to prevent settler raids and arson against Palestinians.
From Barron's ● Oct. 20, 2026
The criminal investigation is ongoing and the items seized in the raids on his homes in Norfolk and Berkshire will remain in police custody while his legal challenge over this material continues.
From BBC ● Oct. 8, 2026
Japan’s military had taken such a beating by this point, the country was nearly defenseless against American air raids.
From "Bomb" by Steve Sheinkin
Builders report that immigration agents have frequently pulled over workers driving with construction materials and raided building sites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
Japanese officials have raided the country's biggest beer makers over allegations they worked together to raise the price of their beverages.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
Indonesian authorities raided a prison outside Jakarta Wednesday where inmates have allegedly been paying to live in luxury, emptying several "villas" of furniture, bottles of alcohol and at least one big-screen TV.
From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2026
U.S. forces later that year raided a ship carrying dual-use components from China to Iran, signaling that Washington was watching.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
Every few months Fadi would accompany his mother and Noor to a carefully chosen location arranged by a bookseller whose renowned shop had been raided and shut down.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
In October 1916, in Tujunga Canyon near Sunland, a farmer named Cornelius Johnson set out a trap for a bear that had been raiding his grapevines.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
Don’t tell Jason Gay, but I don’t think most of these people were raiding a college-savings plan.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
And Greece's Akylas had the most kaleidoscopic performance - sliding down a fireman's pole, raiding a bank vault and dancing with a Greek statue during his techno banger, Ferto.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
It would merely be a different flavor of raiding the Treasury for personal gain.
From Slate ● May 16, 2026
For hungry children growing up in the citadel of the Mesarthim, there had never been a pantry worth raiding.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
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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.
