despoil

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French despoillier ( > French dépouiller), from Latin dēspoliō, dēspoliāre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈspɔɪl/
• Rhymes: -ɔɪl

Verb

despoil (third-person singular simple present despoils, present participle despoiling, simple past and past participle despoiled)

1. (transitive) To deprive for spoil; to take spoil from; to plunder; to rob; to pillage.
   • 1849, Thomas Macaulay, History of England, Chapter 20:

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

   • 2010, The Economist, 17 July, p.53:

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

2. (transitive) To violently strip (someone), with indirect object of their possessions etc.; to rob.
   • 1614, Sir Walter Raleigh, History of the World:

     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.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 9, 410-11:

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

   • 1849, Thomas Macaulay, History of England, Chapter 20:

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

3. (obsolete, transitive or reflexive) To strip (someone) of their clothes; to undress.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “xij”, in Le Morte Darthur, book VII:
     :

     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

Related terms

• despoiler
• despoilment
• despoliation
• spoliate
• spoliation

Translations

To deprive for spoil; to take spoil from; to plunder; to rob;

• Bulgarian: ограбвам (bg) (ograbvam)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ληΐζομαι (lēḯzomai)

• Ido: spoliar (io)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: despuia (ro)
• Spanish: despojar (es)

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

• Bulgarian: грабя (bg) (grabja), плячкосвам (bg) (pljačkosvam)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Spanish: despojar (es)

Noun

despoil (plural despoils)

1. (obsolete) Plunder; spoliation.

References

• “despoil”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “despoil”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• diploes, diploës, dipoles, elopids, peloids, soliped, spoiled