Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A predatory attack; a raid.
  • noun Damage or loss; ravage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of plundering; a robbing; a pillaging.
  • noun Waste; consumption.
  • noun In Scots law, the offense of driving away numbers of cattle or other beasts by the masterful force of armed persons: otherwise called hership.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of depredating, or the state of being depredated; the act of despoiling or making inroads.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An act of consuming agricultural resources (crops, livestock), especially as plunder.
  • noun A raid or predatory attack

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (usually plural) a destructive action
  • noun an act of plundering and pillaging and marauding

Etymologies

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Examples

  • However, the Department of Fish and Game does issue what are known as depredation permits which allows the killing of these animals under certain conditions, usually when they pose a danger to livestock or people.

    Cheri Shankar: Mountan Lion Cub Poses Imminent Danger? 2009

  • As the pasture in which Black Bruin had committed his depredation was a mile from the settler's house and not often visited except to salt the young stock kept in it, the real offender was not discovered, although it was apparent to the farmer that the heifer had been attacked by some wild beast.

    Black Bruin The Biography of a Bear Clarence Hawkes 1901

  • The wolves have come back in numbers better than anticipated, and ranchers have lobbied for a return of sport hunting, to keep the wolf population numbers down and minimize "depredation"-that's cow-country jargon for "killing cattle."

    Boing Boing Xeni Jardin 2011

  • Even the "depredation" of private manuscript collections in the

    Tenth Annual Report of the Archivist, Library of the University of Virginia, for the Year 1939-40 1940

  • We of the civilized world are not apt to attach much credit to the latter species of exploits; but horse-stealing is well-known as an avenue to distinction on the prairies, and the other kind of depredation is esteemed equally meritorious.

    Primitive Love and Love-Stories Henry Theophilus Finck 1890

  • Far be it from me to advocate eating Hostess cupcakes: they symbolize the industrial depredation of anything homemade, the triumph of Big Baking Brother (perhaps in his death throes: Interstate Bakeries, the company that makes them, Twinkies, and Wonder Bread, has been in bankruptcy since 2004).

    Not So Guilty Pleasure 2009

  • Hayek may have underestimated the power of the democratic impulse to restrain the more extreme forms of government depredation, but Hayek never put any sort of time frame on his predictions.

    Tax Cuts for the Rich, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • I am hearing bits and pieces blaming the increasing bear population for the decrease in deer via fawn depredation but I'm not necessarily convinced.

    success rate in WV in 2009 2009

  • I have a lot of mixed feelings, but mostly, I would like to see some serious depredation on the wolves - to get them back down to the original numbers FWS promised to maintain - not ten times more than that.

    Wolfing One Down... 2009

  • I have a lot of mixed feelings, but mostly, I would like to see some serious depredation on the wolves - to get them back down to the original numbers FWS promised to maintain - not ten times more than that.

    Wolfing One Down... 2009

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