Adjacent Words

Despoil definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DESPOIL,v.t. [L. To spoil.]
1. To strip; to take from by force; to rob; to deprive; followed by of; as, to despoil one of arms; to despoil of honors; to despoil of innocence.
2. To strip or divest by any means.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: steal goods; take as spoils; "During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners" [syn: plunder, despoil, loot, reave, strip, rifle, ransack, pillage, foray]
2: destroy and strip of its possession; "The soldiers raped the beautiful country" [syn: rape, spoil, despoil, violate, plunder]

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb Etymology: Middle English despoylen, from Anglo-French despoiller, from Latin despoliare, from de- + spoliare to strip, rob — more at spoil Date: 14th century to strip of belongings, possessions, or value ; pillage Synonyms: see ravage • despoiler noun • despoilment noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. literary (often foll. by of) plunder; rob; deprive (despoiled the roof of its lead). Derivatives: despoiler n. despoilment n. despoliation n. Etymology: ME f. OF despoill(i)er f. L despoliare (as DE-, spoliare SPOIL)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Despoil De*spoil", n. Spoil. [Obs.] --Wolsey.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Despoil De*spoil", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Despoiled; p. pr. & vb. n. Despoiling.] [OF. despoiller, F. d['e]pouiller, L. despoliare, despoliatum; de- + spoliare to strip, rob, spolium spoil, booty. Cf. Spoil, Despoliation.] 1. To strip, as of clothing; to divest or unclothe. [Obs.] --Chaucer. 2. To deprive for spoil; to plunder; to rob; to pillage; to strip; to divest; -- usually followed by of. The clothed earth is then bare, Despoiled is the summer fair. --Gower. A law which restored to them an immense domain of which they had been despoiled. --Macaulay. Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss. --Milton. Syn: To strip; deprive; rob; bereave; rifle.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(despoils, despoiling, despoiled) To despoil a place means to make it less attractive, valuable, or important by taking things away from it or by destroying it. (FORMAL) ...people who despoil the countryside. VERB: V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Strip, denude, divest, deprive, bereave. 2. Rob, plunder, pillage, ravage, devastate, rifle, fleece.

Moby Thesaurus

abuse, adulterate, afflict, aggrieve, alloy, befoul, betray, bewitch, bleed, bleed white, blight, bring to ruin, canker, cheapen, coarsen, condemn, confound, consume, contaminate, corrupt, crucify, curse, damage, damn, deal destruction, debase, debauch, deceive, decimate, defile, deflower, degenerate, degrade, denature, denude, deplume, deprave, depredate, desecrate, desolate, destroy, devalue, devastate, devour, disadvantage, displume, disserve, dissolve, distort, distress, divest, do a mischief, do evil, do ill, do wrong, do wrong by, doom, drain, dry, engorge, envenom, exhaust, flay, fleece, forage, foray, force, freeboot, get into trouble, gobble, gobble up, gut, gut with fire, harass, harm, havoc, hex, hurt, impair, impoverish, incinerate, infect, injure, jinx, lay in ruins, lay waste, lead astray, loot, maltreat, maraud, menace, milk, mislead, mistreat, misuse, molest, outrage, persecute, pervert, pick clean, pillage, play havoc with, play hob with, pluck, plunder, poison, pollute, prejudice, prey on, prostitute, raid, ransack, rape, ravage, raven, ravish, reive, rifle, ruin, ruinate, sack, savage, scathe, seduce, shear, shipwreck, skin, soil, spoil, spoliate, strip, strip bare, suck dry, sully, swallow up, sweep, taint, threaten, throw into disorder, torment, torture, twist, ulcerate, unleash destruction, unleash the hurricane, upheave, vandalize, vaporize, violate, vitiate, vulgarize, warp, waste, wound, wrack, wreak havoc, wreak havoc on, wreck, wrong