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

Verb

(en verb)

To move about in roving fashion looking for plunder.

a marauding band

* {{quote-book

, year= 1684 , year_published= 1728 , author= (Thomas Otway) , by= , title= The Works of Mr. Thomas Otway , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=tA4UAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA88 , original= , chapter= , section= The Atheist; or the Second Part of the Soldier's Fortune , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Richard, James, and Bethel Wellington , location= London , editor= , volume= 2 , page= 88 , passage= 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. }}

* {{quote-book

, year= 1711 , year_published= 1721 , author= (Joseph Addison) , by= , title= The Spectator, no. 90-505 , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=jAszAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA115 , original= , chapter= , section= , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Thomas Tickell , location= London , editor= , volume= 3 , page= 115 , passage= in one of which they met with a party of French that had been marauding , and made them all prisoners at discretion. }}

To go about aggressively or in a predatory manner.

* {{quote-book

, year= 1770 , year_published= , author= , by= , title= The Critical Review: Or, Annals of Literature , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=4FrQAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA73 , original= , chapter= Fables for Grown Gentlemen , section= , isbn= , edition= , publisher= A. Hamilton , location= London , editor= Tobias George Smollett , volume= 29 , page= 73 , passage= A flea out of a blanket shaken, A bloody-minded sinner, Upon a taylor's neck was taken, Marauding for a dinner. }}

To raid and pillage.

* {{quote-book

, year= 1829 , year_published= , author= (Washington Irving) , by= , title= A Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada: In Two Volumes , url= http://books.google.com/books?id=hylOAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA118 , original= , chapter= , section= , isbn= , edition= , publisher= Baudry, at the Foreign Library , location= Paris , editor= , volume= 1 , page= 118-9 , passage= 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. }}