despoil

present singular third person despoils · participle present despoiling · participle past despoiled · past despoiled

1. transitiveTo plunder; to pillage; take spoil from.

   a law which restored to them an immense domain of which they had been despoiled

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   5 more examples

   [T]here vvas brought unto him an horſe named Babylonius, vvhich happening to be ſore vexed vvith a ſuddaine gripe or vvring in his belly, fell dovvne, and vvhiles hee vvas not able to endure the paine, vvallovveth along, and happeneth to beſprent his capariſon and ornaments richly garniſhed vvith gold and precious ſtones. At vvhich ſtrange ſight he tooke great joy, and cryed out, vvith the applauſe of thoſe next about him, That Babylon vvas fallen, and lay along on the ground diſpoyled of all her ornaments.

   1609, Ammianus Marcellinus, “[The XXIII. Booke.] Chapter II. Being Departed out of Antioch, He was Troubled and Haunted with Strange Signes and Dreames: But afterwards Comforted againe by Sundrie Presages, and the Arrivall of a Most Puissant Armadoe, He Proceedeth in His Intended Voyage.”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Roman Historie, […], London: […] Adam Jslip, →OCLC, pages 220–221

   Ripton was familiar with the rod, a monster much despoiled of his terrors by intimacy.

   1859, George Meredith, chapter V, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC

   . Nevertheless, like everything else worth while, however sacred and precious and well-guarded, they have always been subject to attack, mostly by despoiling gainseekers, -- mischief-makers of every degree from Satan to supervisors, lumbermen, cattlemen, farmers, etc., eagerly trying to make everything dollarable, often thinly disguised in smiling philanthropy, calling pocket-filling plunder "Utilization of beneficent natural resources, that man and beast may be fed and the dear Nation grow great."

   1908 January 4, John Muir, “The Hetch Hetchy Valley”, in Sierra Club Bulletin, volume VI, number 4

   They've come to witness the Beginning. The rebirth of Paradise, despoiled by mankind.

   2003, Owaku, Hiroyuki and trans. Blaustein, Jeremy, et al., quoting Claudia Wolf, Silent Hill 3, Tokyo: Konami, PlayStation 2; PC

   To dreamers in the West, Tibet is a Shangri-La despoiled by Chinese ruthlessness and rapacity.

   2010 July 17, The Economist, page 53

2. transitiveTo violently strip (someone), with indirect object of their possessions etc.; to rob.

   A law which restored to them an immense domain of which they had been despoiled.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   The Earl of March, following the plain path which his father had trodden out, despoiled Henry the father, and Edward the son, both of their lives and kingdom.

   1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5)

   To intercept thy way, or send thee back / Despoiled of innocence, of faith, of bliss.

   1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 410-411

3. obsoletereflexivetransitiveTo strip (someone) of their clothes; to undress.

   So syr Persants doughter dyd as her fader bad her / and soo she wente vnto syr Beaumayns bed / & pryuely she dispoylled her / & leid her doune by hym / & thenne he awoke & sawe her & asked her what she was

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book VII

plural despoils

1. countableobsoleteuncountablePlunder; spoliation.

   ’Tis done;—despoil and desolation / O’er Rylstone’s fair domain have blown; […]

   1815, William Wordsworth, “Canto Seventh”, in The White Doe of Rylstone; or The Fate of the Nortons. A Poem, London: […] [F]or Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […], by James Ballantyne and Co., […], →OCLC, page 112