Verb

(deteriorat)

To make worse; to make inferior in quality or value; to impair.

to deteriorate the mind

* Southey

The art of war, like every other art, ecclesiastical architecture alone excepted, was greatly deteriorated during those years of general degradation

To grow worse; to be impaired in quality; to degenerate.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=January 8 , author=Paul Fletcher , title=Stevenage 3 - 1 Newcastle , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=It was turning into an abysmal afternoon for Newcastle and it deteriorated further when Tiote saw red for his challenge on Jon Ashton. }}

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