Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To sack; plunder.
- v. To deprive of something valuable by force; rob: a region despoiled of its scenic beauty by unchecked development.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To spoliate; take spoil from; strip of possessions; pillage: as, the army despoiled the enemy's country.
- To deprive by spoliation; strip by force; plunder; bereave: with of: as, to despoil one of his goods or of honors.
- To strip; divest; undress: used absolutely or with of.
- n. Spoil; plunder; spoliation.
Wiktionary
- v. To deprive for spoil; to take spoil from; to plunder; to rob; to pillage.
- v. To violently strip (someone), with indirect object of their possessions etc.; to rob.
- v. To strip (someone) of their clothes; to undress.
- n. Plunder; spoliation.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To strip, as of clothing; to divest or unclothe.
- v. To deprive for spoil; to plunder; to rob; to pillage; to strip; to divest; -- usually followed by
of . - n. Spoil.
WordNet 3.0
- v. steal goods; take as spoils
- v. destroy and strip of its possession
Etymologies
- Middle English despoilen, from Old French despoillier, from Latin dēspoliāre : dē-, de- + spoliāre, to plunder (from spolium, booty).
Examples
“Allow no man, under any pretense, to despoil you of your virtue.”
“For good measure and in keeping with his employer's philosophy, Watt permitted commercial interests to exploit and despoil previously off-limits publicly owned wilderness.”
The Huffington Post: Edward Flattau: Reagan's Birthday Caveat
“In addressing these and countless projects like them up and down the state, Californians have relied on CEQA for over 40 years to protect their communities and our natural resources from environmentally uninformed government decisions -- decisions that needlessly pollute our air, contaminate our water, endanger our children's health, despoil our wild lands, and undermine the quality of our lives.”
“We can now despoil each other of countless types of assets, from a world away.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Outrageous Treaty Nonsense, or The Copyright Tail Wagging the Internet Dog
“Together they join to resist the Crushers of corporate-military power that seek to despoil their world.”
The Huffington Post: Rabbi Arthur Waskow: Big Coal, 'Avatar' And Tu B'Shvat
“Once upon a time, repelled (rightly) by Canada's treatment of First Nations people, and in particular the Ontario government's collaboration with Big Mining to despoil Indian lands and jail their leaders, she preached aboriginal revolution:”
“They say Canadian oil-sands crude, which made up about half of the 1.9 million barrels of oil a day Canada exported to the U.S. in 2009, is more likely to spill from pipelines and despoil land in the U.S.”
“How can we have free elections, runs a classic line, as long as they despoil our sacred Islamic lands?”
The Wall Street Journal: The Arab Spring and The Palestine Distraction
“Please tell me that he won't be allowed to compel others to despoil their property just to satisfy his silly whims.”
The Wall Street Journal: Maybe Joyce Kilmer Could Arbitrate This
“As the wheels come off the whole climate change cart, an interesting possibility arises: an alliance between real environmentalists, who do not want to despoil the rare landscape for the sake of a corrupt international kleptocracy and rent-seeking US companies, and us cheap energy advocates.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Wherein I Actually Agree with Dianne Feinstein
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘despoil’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4084 more...
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I am : violent
Destructive verbs that speed up entropy. (Still working on definition of what I want; may add adjectives later.)
destroy, wreck, thrash, trash, beat up, annihilate, exterminate, disembowel, eviscerate, disintegrate, explode, bomb and 41 more...
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Oily
Words and phrases that have "oil" in them.
oil, oily, olive oil, crude oil, toil, boil, trefoil, foil, roil, broil, coil, soil and 70 more...
bilby
Lie here with me dreaming,
Cheek to cheek,
Lithe limbs twined and gleaming,
Brown and sleek;
Like two serpents coiling
In their lair.
Where's the good of wreathing
Sprays for Time's despoiling?
Let me feel your breathing
In my hair.
- Richard Hovey, 'Launa Dee'.
Sep 16, 2009
yarb Grans are bewildered by post-Coronation disintegration;
offspring of offspring of their offspring infest and despoil.
- Peter Reading, Ukulele Music, 1985 May 30, 2009