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
-
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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Indiana Jones Vocabulary
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Chinese History - Middle School and High School
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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:
A column of black smoke has been seen near Riyadh's international airport hours after air raid alerts were issued in the Saudi capital.
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
The cartoon turned the dynamic into an armed raid by cereal characters, but the basic instinct — watch a useful moral vocabulary become commercially useful — was already recognizable.
From Salon ● Sep. 18, 2026
Workers told the BBC the brazen 55-second raid was all in a day's work, with offenders targeting the outlet multiple times every day.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
The recent raid by OpenAI agents on the Hugging Face platform is the most notable, but others are occurring as the machines learn to teach and improve themselves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026
He has been stopping by briefly every day since the SIM raid.
From "Before We Were Free" by Julia Alvarez
Within two years, however, the two sides would be engaged in a cycle of raids and counterraids.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026
His justice minister defended the raids as a bid to protect "children and the institution of the family".
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
They were calling for the release of another group of LGBTQ+ activists, who were arrested over the weekend in a series of raids on gay bars and at the homes of activists.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
He said that the National Guard was never discussed during that call and that the two did not speak about the immigration raids and protests again.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
When the raids are over, Mammy and Khala Mariam will dig you out.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
Over the past week the authorities raided association offices, blocked websites and made arrests across multiple provinces.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
Mundubile took refuge the day after the August 13 election at an international human rights organisation after police raided his home in an operation against the opposition.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
Police recovered the prints last week when they raided an apartment in the São Paulo suburb of São Bernardo do Campo and arrested a man suspected of watching over the stolen art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Last week the KFA's headquarters were raided by police as part of an investigation into an alleged "obstruction of business" concerning Hong's appointment as manager.
From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026
Someone had raided a cornfield and that helped out too.
From "Life Is So Good" by George Dawson
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
Thirty-five bodies and more than 100 sets of ashes were found by police raiding Legacy Independent Funeral Directors in Hull in March 2024.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 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
It would merely be a different flavor of raiding the Treasury for personal gain.
From Slate ● May 16, 2026
“But if you work for the Empire—” Then why are the soldiers raiding us?
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
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.
