despoiler

D2E1S1P3O1I1L1E1R1

noun

One who despoils; one who strips by force; a plunderer.

Scrabble 12

Meanings

noundespoiler (plural despoilers)

plural despoilers

  1. 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 Passion

    1985, 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

  1. Middle Englishdispoyler, dispoylere
  2. Englishdespoiler

From Middle English dispoyler, dispoylere, equivalent to despoil + -er.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

despoiler. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/despoiler

MLA

“despoiler.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/despoiler. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “despoiler,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/despoiler.

Source: despoiler on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.