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Despoil vs Looting - What's the difference?

despoil | looting |

As verbs the difference between despoil and looting

is that despoil is to deprive for spoil; to take spoil from; to plunder; to rob; to pillage while looting is .

As nouns the difference between despoil and looting

is that despoil is (obsolete) plunder; spoliation while looting is the act of looting, the act of stealing during a general disturbance.

despoil

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To deprive for spoil; to take spoil from; to plunder; to rob; to pillage.
  • *Macaulay
  • *: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.
  • 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 , , History of England , Ch.20:
  • *:A law which restored to them an immense domain of which they had been despoiled .
  • To 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

    • Related terms

    * despoiler * despoilment * despoliation * spoliate * spoliation

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Plunder; spoliation.

    • References

    * *

    Anagrams

    * * * * *

    looting

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of looting, the act of stealing during a general disturbance.
    • During the looting , the mob stole everything they could and then set fire to the buildings.

    Verb

    (head)
    • While looting the stores the looters took the opportunity for revenge by destroying what they didn't steal.

    Anagrams

    *