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  1. pillage love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To rob of goods by force, especially in time of war; plunder.
  2. v. To take as spoils.
  3. v. To take spoils by force.
  4. n. The act of pillaging.
  5. n. Something pillaged; spoils.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The act of plundering.
  2. n. Plunder; spoil; that which is taken from another by open force, particularly and chiefly from enemies in war.
  3. n. Synonyms Pillage, Plunder, Booty, Spoil, Prey. These words denote that which is violently got or carried off; all except prey suggest a considerable amount seized. Pillage also denotes the act; the others only the thing or things taken. Pillage and spoil especially suggest the great loss to the owners, completely stripping or despoiling them of their property; plunder suggests the quantity and value of that which is taken: as, loaded with plunder; booty is primarily the spoils of war, but also of a raid or combined action, as of pirates, brigands, or burglars; spoil is the only one of these words that is used in the plural, except, rarely, prey. Prey now seems figurative or archaic when not applied to the objects of pursuit by animals: as, the mouse falls a ready prey to both beasts and birds; hence, when applied to that which is pursued or taken by man, it expresses condemnation of the act.
  4. To strip of money or goods by open violence; plunder; despoil.

Wiktionary

  1. v. transitive, intransitive To loot or plunder by force, especially in time of war.
  2. n. The spoils of war.
  3. n. The act of pillaging.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. The act of pillaging; robbery.
  2. n. That which is taken from another or others by open force, particularly and chiefly from enemies in war; plunder; spoil; booty.
  3. v. To strip of money or goods by open violence; to plunder; to spoil; to lay waste.
  4. v. To take spoil; to plunder; to ravage.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. goods or money obtained illegally
  2. n. the act of stealing valuable things from a place
  3. v. steal goods; take as spoils

Etymologies

  1. From Old French pillage, from piller ("plunder"), from an unattested meaning of Late Latin piliō, probably a figurative use of Latin pilō, from pilus ("hair"). (Wiktionary)
  2. From Middle English, booty, from Old French, from piller, to plunder, from peille, rag (probably from Latin pilleus, pīleus, felt cap) or from Vulgar Latin *pīliāre. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Prepare to lower the foc'sle and main pillage and plunder and put big hickeys on all the fair damsels!”

    Arrrr Ye Slimey Bilge Rats, 'Tis Talk Like A Pirate Day!

  • “Not the slightest trace is left of these nations which, born in pillage, died in blood.”

    Élie Ducommun - Nobel Lecture

  • “They knew that they were breaking the law by carrying on a game of what is called pillage or brigandage at sea; but then they thought the law was all wrong, and that it was unlawful to enforce such restrictions, or put any penalty on freedom of action.”

    The Shellback's Progress In the Nineteenth Century

  • “The pillage was the first in the museum's 70-year history.”

    The Seattle Times

  • “[113] The commander of the faithful rejected with firmness the idea of pillage, and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth and revenue of Alexandria for the public service and the propagation of the faith: the inhabitants were numbered; a tribute was imposed, the zeal and resentment of the Jacobites were curbed, and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke were indulged in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship.”

    History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

  • “The commander of the faithful rejected with firmness the idea of pillage, and directed his lieutenant to reserve the wealth and revenue of Alexandria for the public service and the propagation of the faith: the inhabitants were numbered; a tribute was imposed, the zeal and resentment of the Jacobites were curbed, and the Melchites who submitted to the Arabian yoke were indulged in the obscure but tranquil exercise of their worship.”

    History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 5

  • “Ivory Coast officials have been engaged in a rising diplomatic grievance with Chinese fishermen, with the government comparing methods to "pillage" and unions arguing that 4,000 local jobs are potentially at risk.”

    ANC Daily News Briefing

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synonyms (7)

Words with the same meaning

  1. rapine
  1. spoil
  1. plunder
  1. depredation
  1. robbery
  1. booty
  1. ravage

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. stolen property

same context (24)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. rapine
  2. butchery
  3. plunder
  4. spoliation
  1. arson
  2. carnage
  3. incendiarism
  4. loot
  1. devastation
  2. massacre
  3. burnings
  4. confiscation
  1. enslavement
  2. lawlessness
  3. mayhem
  4. rape
  1. robbery
  2. piracy
  3. extermination
  4. thievery
  1. proscription
  2. vandalism
  3. deportation
  4. licentiousness

rhymes (3)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. millage
  1. spillage
  1. village

reverse dictionary (46)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. rapine
  2. spoil
  3. sack
  4. pillage
  5. plunder
  6. booty
  7. prey
  8. rob
  9. robber
  1. steal
  2. thief
  3. expilation
  4. depredate
  5. despoil
  6. harrow
  7. harry
  8. expilate
  9. blackmail
  1. freebooting
  2. freebooty
  3. pill
  4. pillery
  5. prede
  6. prowlery
  7. ransack
  8. ravage
  9. sackage
  1. spolia opima
  2. spoliate
  3. boothale
  4. depredatory
  5. devastate
  6. foray
  7. loot
  8. reave
  9. havoc
  1. maraud
  2. forray
  3. rape
  4. rifle
  5. invade
  6. peel
  7. plume
  8. sacker
  9. rip
  1. waste

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. cvccvcv
  1. rape

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Lists

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Comments

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  • whichbe Accounting for the number of pills one has. Oct 10, 2008

  • slumry I think I know the movie you mean, but I am also memfaulting. Jul 17, 2007

  • arby Wow, good point slumry!

    I was thinking of popular culture depictions of, say, the Vikings, or the Huns, as "raping and pillaging" all the time. There was some movie or TV show where they mocked that convention and accidentally said, "We will burn their houses, kill their women and have sex with their animals" or something like that. Totally memfaulting on the detail.

    Damn, now that's going to drive me crazy! Jul 17, 2007

  • slumry That is truly interesting. It comes full circle--rape has the connotation of treating a person as property. It is not just sex, it is treating a person as a non-person. Jul 17, 2007

  • reesetee Wasn't the original meaning of "rape" more like a seizing or carrying off of property? So it's interesting to consider how it arrived at its present generally accepted meaning.... Jul 17, 2007

  • uselessness Surely it's possible to pillage without raping? Though I've never heard of that actually happening... Jul 17, 2007

  • arby As in "rape and". Heh. Jul 17, 2007

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‘pillage’ has been looked up 2717 times, loved by 2 people, added to 53 lists, commented on 7 times, and has a Scrabble score of 10.