rapine
English
Noun
(–)
The seizure of someone’s property by force; pillage, plunder.
* (1800-1859)
*:men who were impelled to war quite as much by the desire of rapine as by the desire of glory
*
*:The Bat—they called him the Bat. Like a bat he chose the night hours for his work of rapine ; like a bat he struck and vanished, pouncingly, noiselessly; like a bat he never showed himself to the face of the day.
*1951 , (Isaac Asimov), (1974 (Panther Books) Ltd publication), Part V: “The Merchant Princes”,
*:“You could join Wiscard’s remnants in the Red Stars. I don’t know, though, if you’d call that fighting or piracy. Or you could join our present gracious viceroy?—?gracious by right of murder, pillage, rapine , and the word of a boy Emperor, since rightfully assassinated.”
🙁Shakespeare)
References
* The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language , Fourth Edition (2000).
Verb
(rapin)
To plunder.
* , Hist. Richard III :
- A Tyrant doth not only rapine his Subjects, but spoils and robs Churches.
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spoil
English
Verb
(archaic) To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of their arms or armour.
(archaic) To strip or deprive (someone) of their possessions; to rob, despoil.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. (Bible) , (w) IX:
- All that herde hym wer amased and sayde: ys nott this he that spoylled them whych called on this name in Jerusalem?
* 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , VII:
- To do her dye (quoth Vna) were despight, / And shame t’auenge so weake an enimy; / But spoile her of her scarlot robe, and let her fly.
*, I.2.4.vii:
- Roger, that rich Bishop of Salisbury,through grief ran mad, spoke and did he knew not what.
(ambitransitive, archaic) To plunder, pillage (a city, country etc.).
* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)
- Outlaws, which, lurking in woods, used to break forth to rob and spoil .
(obsolete) To carry off (goods) by force; to steal.
* (Bible), (w) iii. 27
- No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man.
To ruin; to damage (something) in some way making it unfit for use.
* (Jeremy Taylor) (1613–1677)
- Spiritual pride spoils many graces.
*
- “I don’t want to spoil any comparison you are going to make,” said Jim, “but I was at Winchester and New College.” ¶ “That will do,” said Mackenzie. “I was dragged up at the workhouse school till I was twelve. […]”
* 2011 , ‘What the Arab papers say’, The Economist , 5 Aug 2011:
- ‘This is a great day for us. Let us not spoil it by saying the wrong thing, by promoting a culture of revenge, or by failing to treat the former president with respect.’
To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess.
Of food, to become bad, sour or rancid; to decay.
- Make sure you put the milk back in the fridge, otherwise it will spoil .
To render (a ballot paper) invalid by deliberately defacing it.
* 2003 , David Nicoll, The Guardian , letter:
- Dr Jonathan Grant (Letters, April 22) feels the best way to show his disaffection with political parties over Iraq is to spoil his ballot paper.
To reveal the ending of (a story etc.); to ruin (a surprise) by exposing it ahead of time.
Synonyms
* (ruin) damage, destroy, ruin
* (coddle) coddle, indulge, mollycoddle
Noun
(en noun )
(Also in plural: spoils ) Plunder taken from an enemy or victim.
(uncountable) Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging]]. [[tailings, Tailings.
See also
* spoilage
* spoils of war
* spoilsport
* spoilt
* too many cooks spoil the broth
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