Adjacent Words

Pillage definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PILL'AGE, n.
1. Plunder; spoil; that which is taken from another by open force, particularly and chiefly from enemies in war.
2. The act of plundering.
3. In architecture, a square pillar behind a column to bear up the arches.
PILL'AGE, v.t. To strip of money or goods by open violence; as, troops pillage the camp or towns of an enemy; to plunder; to spoil. It differs from stealing, as it implies open violence,and from robbery, which may be committed by one individual on another; whereas pillaging is usually the act of bands or numbers. To pillage and to rob are however sometimes used synonymously.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: goods or money obtained illegally [syn: loot, booty, pillage, plunder, prize, swag, dirty money]
2: the act of stealing valuable things from a place; "the plundering of the Parthenon"; "his plundering of the great authors" [syn: plundering, pillage, pillaging] 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]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English pilage, from Anglo-French, from piler to rob, plunder Date: 14th century 1. the act of looting or plundering especially in war 2. something taken as booty II. verb (pillaged; pillaging) Date: circa 1592 transitive verb to plunder ruthlessly ; loot intransitive verb to take booty Synonyms: see ravage • pillager noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v.tr. (also absol.) plunder; sack (a place or a person). --n. the act or an instance of pillaging, esp. in war. Derivatives: pillager n. Etymology: ME f. OF f. piller plunder

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pillage Pil"lage, n. [F., fr. piller to plunder. See Pill to plunder.] 1. The act of pillaging; robbery. --Shak. 2. That which is taken from another or others by open force, particularly and chiefly from enemies in war; plunder; spoil; booty. Which pillage they with merry march bring home. --Shak. Syn: Plunder; rapine; spoil; depredation. Usage: Pillage, Plunder. Pillage refers particularly to the act of stripping the sufferers of their goods, while plunder refers to the removal of the things thus taken; but the words are freely interchanged.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pillage Pil"lage, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Pillaged; p. pr. & vb. n. Pillaging.] To strip of money or goods by open violence; to plunder; to spoil; to lay waste; as, to pillage the camp of an enemy. Mummius . . . took, pillaged, and burnt their city. --Arbuthnot.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Pillage Pil"lage, v. i. To take spoil; to plunder; to ravage. They were suffered to pillage wherever they went. --Macaulay.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(pillages, pillaging, pillaged) If a group of people pillage a place, they steal property from it using violent methods. Soldiers went on a rampage, pillaging stores and shooting. ...the boldness to pillage and rape. = plunder VERB: V n, V • Pillage is also a noun. There were no signs of violence or pillage. N-UNCOUNT • pillaging ...pillaging by people looking for something to eat.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Spoliation, depredation, destruction, devastation, plundering, rapine. 2. Plunder, booty, spoil, prey. II. v. a. Plunder, spoil, despoil, sack, strip, rifle.

Moby Thesaurus

abduct, appropriate, arrogate, assault, attack, banditry, barbarize, batter, booty, brigandage, brigandism, brutalize, buccaneering, burn, butcher, carry off, carry on, confiscate, defilement, demolish, demolition, depredate, depredation, desecrate, desolate, despoil, despoiling, despoilment, despoliation, destroy, destruction, devastate, devastation, devour, direption, encroach, filch, fleece, forage, foraging, foray, freeboot, freebooting, go on, gut, hammer, invade, kidnap, lay waste, laying waste, level, lift, loot, looting, maraud, marauding, maul, mug, nab, pilfer, pillaging, pinch, piracy, plunder, plundering, prey on, purloin, rage, raid, raiding, ramp, rampage, ransack, ransacking, rant, rape, rapine, ravage, ravagement, ravaging, rave, raven, ravish, ravishment, raze, razing, razzia, reive, reiving, rifle, rifling, riot, roar, rob, robbery, ruin, sack, sacking, savage, shanghai, slaughter, sow chaos, spoil, spoiling, spoils, spoliate, spoliation, storm, strip, stripping, sweep, swipe, tear, tear around, terrorize, thieve, throttle, trespass, usurp, vandalize, violate, waste, wreck