Meanings
plural despoilers
- One who despoils; one who strips by force; a plunderer.
[…] he, who had been the untamable despoiler of their daughters, and thief of their women, their walking prince of darkness!
1953, James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain, New York, N.Y.: Knopf, →OCLC, part 2 (The Prayers of the Saints)2 more examples
A wild and unreasoning craving for vengeance took possession of Ferris’s soul. Passing by the real despoiler of Angela’s peace, it clamoured like an evil spirit against the man from whom he had received benefits, which his distorted imagination construed into insults.
1881, Rosa Campbell Praed, chapter 30, in Policy and Passion1985, Stephen Jay Gould, The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History, New York: Norton, 1987, Chapter 1, Other despoilers of our natural heritage killed bison with even greater abandon, removed the tongue only (considered a great delicacy in some quarters), and left the rest of the carcass to rot.
Synonyms & antonyms
nounsomeone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war)
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Middle Englishdispoyler, dispoylere
- Englishdespoiler
From Middle English dispoyler, dispoylere, equivalent to despoil + -er.
More words from Middle English
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
despoiler. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/despoiler
“despoiler.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/despoiler. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “despoiler,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/despoiler.
Source: despoiler on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.