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pillage

verb, noun — 3 senses

pillage

verb

/ˈpɪl.ɪd͡ʒ/ · /ˈpɪl.əd͡ʒ/

Etymology From Old French pillage, from piller (“plunder”), from an unattested meaning of Late Latin piliō, probably a figurative use of Latin pilō (“to remove (hair)”), from pilus (“hair”).

1

Ambitransitive To loot or plunder by force, especially in time of war.

  • 1911, Sabine Baring-Gould, Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe, Chapter VI: Cliff Castles—Continued, Archibald V. (1361-1397) was Count of Perigord. He was nominally under the lilies [France], but he pillaged indiscriminately in his county.
  • So far as Pridger was concerned the game was up. He had cooked the buying, he had cooked the selling, he had systematically pillaged the stock.1927, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados Mysteries:
Synonyms
harry
Derived terms
pillageable, pillager, unpillaged

pillage

noun

Etymology From Old French pillage, from piller (“plunder”), from an unattested meaning of Late Latin piliō, probably a figurative use of Latin pilō (“to remove (hair)”), from pilus (“hair”).

1

The spoils of war.

  • Which pillage they with merry march bring home.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
2

The act of pillaging.

  • An employee at a brewery in Kinshasa rated the aftermath as more catastrophic to the company than the direct violence: It was more the consequences of the pillages that hit Bracongo – the poverty of the people, our friends who buy beer.2013, Zoë Marriage, Formal Peace and Informal War: Security and Development in Congo:
Synonyms
booty

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

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