Meanings
present singular third person marauds · participle present marauding · participle past marauded · past marauded
- intransitiveTo move about in roving fashion looking for plunder; to loiter.
a marauding band
2 more examples
Peace Plunder, Peace, you Rogue; no Moroding now i we'll burn, rob, demolish and murder another time together : This is a Bus'ness must be done with decency.
1684, Thomas Otway, The Works of Mr. Thomas Otway, volume 2, London: Richard, James, and Bethel Wellington, published 1728, The Atheist; or the Second Part of the Soldier's Fortune, page 88[…] in one of which they met with a party of French that had been marauding, and made them all prisoners at discretion.
1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, no. 90-505, volume 3, London: Thomas Tickell, published 1721, page 115 - intransitiveTo go about aggressively or in a predatory manner.
A flea out of a blanket shaken, A bloody-minded sinner, Upon a taylor's neck was taken, Marauding for a dinner.
1770, “Fables for Grown Gentlemen”, in Tobias George Smollett, editor, The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature, volume 29, London: A. Hamilton, page 73 - transitiveTo raid and pillage.
As the tract of country they intended to maraud was far in the Moorish territories near the coast of the Mediterranean, they did not arrive until late in the following day.
1829, Washington Irving, A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada: In Two Volumes, volume 1, Paris: Baudry, at the Foreign Library, pages 118–9
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*mers-“to trouble, confuse, ignore, forget”
- Proto-Germanic*marzijaną“to neglect, hinder, spoil”
- Frankish*marʀijan“to neglect, hinder”
- Old French*marault“beggar, vagabond”
- Middle Frenchmaraud“rascal”
- Frenchmarauder
- Englishmaraud
From French marauder, derivative of maraud (“rogue, vagabond”), from Middle French maraud (“rascal”), from Old French *marault (“beggar, vagabond”), from marir, marrir (“to trouble, stray, lose ones way, be lost”), from Frankish *marʀijan (“to neglect, hinder”), from Proto-Germanic *marzijaną (“to neglect, hinder, spoil”), from Proto-Indo-European *mers- (“to trouble, confuse, ignore, forget”), + Old French suffix -ault, -aud. Cognate with Old High German marrjan, marren (“to obstruct, hinder”), Old Saxon merrian (“to hinder, waste”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (marzjan, “to offend”). Related to mar.
More words from French, Middle French, Old French
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic نَهَبَ
- نَهَبَ (nahaba)transitive: to raid and pillage
Bulgarian мародерствам, ограбвам
- мародерствам (maroderstvam)intransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- ограбвам (ograbvam)transitive: to raid and pillage
Catalan basquejar, basquejar
- basquejarintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- basquejartransitive: to raid and pillage
Chinese Mandarin 掠奪 /掠夺
- 掠奪 /掠夺 (lüèduó)transitive: to raid and pillage
Dutch roven, plunderen
- rovenintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- plunderentransitive: to raid and pillage
Esperanto marodi
- maroditransitive: to raid and pillage
Finnish ryöstellä, ryöstellä
- ryöstelläintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- ryöstellätransitive: to raid and pillage
- ryöstäätransitive: to raid and pillage
French marauder, piller
- marauderintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- pillertransitive: to raid and pillage
German marodieren, plündern
- marodierenintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- plünderntransitive: to raid and pillage
Hungarian fosztogat, rabol
- fosztogatintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- rabolintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- portyázikintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- kifoszttransitive: to raid and pillage
- kiraboltransitive: to raid and pillage
Japanese 略奪する
- 略奪する (ryakudatsu suru)transitive: to raid and pillage
Māori pāhuahua
- pāhuahuatransitive: to raid and pillage
Polish grasować
- grasowaćintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
Russian мародёрствовать, разбо́йничать
- мародёрствовать (marodjórstvovatʹ)intransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- разбо́йничать (razbójničatʹ)intransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
- гра́бить (grábitʹ)transitive: to raid and pillage
- разоря́ть (razorjátʹ)transitive: to raid and pillage
Spanish merodear
- merodearintransitive: to move about in roving fashion looking for plunder
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with maraud
Anagrams
Cite this entry
maraud. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maraud
“maraud.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maraud. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “maraud,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/maraud.
Source: maraud on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.