Word Finder - plundering

definition

To pillage, take or destroy all the goods of, by force (as in war); to raid, sack.

example

The mercenaries plundered the small town.

definition

To take (goods) by pillage.

example

The mercenaries plundered all the goods they found.

definition

To take by force or wrongfully; to commit robbery or looting, to raid.

example

“Now to plunder, mateys!” screamed a buccaneer, to cries of “Arrgh!” and “Aye!” all around.

definition

To make extensive (over)use of, as if by plundering; to use or use up wrongfully.

example

The miners plundered the jungle for its diamonds till it became a muddy waste.

definition

To take unexpectedly.

definition

The act of one who plunders; pillaging or looting; plunder.

The bishop of Durham accuses them of plundering both sides.

They were a warlike race, addicted to plundering expeditions.

The directcrs of Paris, not content with overrunning and plundering Switzerland, had outraged German sentiment in many ways.

This they avenged from generation to generation by plundering and ravaging the plains.

Doubtless the king's sore financial needs had much to do with the dissolution of the abbeys and the plundering of the shrines, but there is no reason to suppose that he was not fully convinced that the monks had long outlived their usefulness and that the shrines were centres of abject superstition and ecclesiastical deceit.

When the prologue to Job speaks of plundering Sabaeans (and Chaldaeans) on the northern skirts of Arabia, these may be either colonists or caravans, which, like the old Phoenician and Greek traders, combined on occasion robbery with trade.

In these African campaigns Sulla showed that he knew how to win the confidence of his soldiers, and throughout his career the secret of his success seems to have been the enthusiastic devotion of his troops, whom he continued to hold well in hand, while allowing them to indulge in plundering and all kinds of excess.

While arousing the enthusiasm of their inhabitants on behalf of France, he in private spoke contemptuously of them, mercilessly suppressed all outbreaks caused by the exactions and plundering of his army, and carefully curbed the factions which the new political life soon developed.

The buccaneers or filibusters, who during the 17th century were drawn to the West Indies by the prospect of plundering the possessions of decadent Spain, often invaded Porto Rico, but that island escaped the conquest which Haiti experienced.

The British connexion with the Somali coast dates from the early years of the 19th century; the first treaty between the British and Somali having been signed in 18 2 7 after the plundering of an English ship by the Habr-Wal.

The tone of the demand offended Bayezid, who rejected it in terms equally sharp. As a result Timur's countless hordes attacked and took Sivas, plundering the town and massacring its inhabitants.

Moreover, the great contributions levied by Napoleon on the city, the plundering of its bank by Davoust, and the burning of its prosperous suburbs inflicted wounds from which the city but slowly recovered.

They imagined that, like other nations, they would fallbefore their superior tactics and valour; and their cupidity was inflamed by the prospect of marching to Calcutta and plundering the country.

Mecca itself was taken; plundering was forbidden, but the tombs of the saints and all objects of veneration were ruthlessly destroyed, and all ceremonies which seemed in the eye of the stern puritan conqueror to suggest the taint of idolatry were forbidden.

His journey to the province was marked by plundering, extortion and the murder of C. Trebonius, proconsul of Asia, who refused to allow him to enter Smyrna.

The corsair retaliated by leading what remained of his navy on a plundering raid to the Balearic Islands.

It was a plundering expedition on a large scale, and like most of Edward's campaigns showed some want 'of strategic purpose.

The dauphin and the duke of Alencon failed to bring about any sympathetic rising in Auvergne, and the Praguerie was over, except for some final pillaging and plundering in Saintonge and Poitou, which the royal army failed to prevent.

Though the Gur Khan himself is not described as having extended his conquests into Persia, the shah of Kharezm followed up the victory by invading Khorasan and plundering the cities and treasuries of Sanjar.

This work was continued during the following year by the king and his eldest son Charles, and the Christmas of 784 was spent by the royal family at Eresburg, whence Charles directed various plundering expeditions.

The resistance Charles met with was not serious, and these expeditions took the form of plundering raids.

The Polish troops had taken a prominent part in the invasion of Russia, and their share in the plundering of Smolensk and of Moscow had intensified the racial hatred felt for them by the Russians.

In this district there was much turbulence and plundering by the lawless elements of both Whigs and Tories and by bands of ill-disciplined soldiers from both armies.

At the commencement of the reign of the tsar Nicholas II., in 1895, the Doukhobors became the victims of a series of persecutions, Cossack soldiers plundering, insulting, beating and maltreating both men and women in every way.

He fought for his own hand, but his supremacy was certainly better than the rule of gangs of plundering nobles.

It may suffice to mention that, under the leadership of Pigu Arslan Israil, they crossed the Oxus and spread over the eastern provinces of Persia, everywhere plundering and destroying.

Their special characteristic was that they received no pay, but rather purchased the privilege of plundering on their own account.

Instead of plundering to support his prodigality, he emptied his private treasury to assist distressed provinces and cities, and everywhere exercised rigid economy (hence the nickname Kv'Avowpicmis, " cummin-splitter").

On the approach of a Saracen force they retired, but a small plundering detachment was cut off.

Count Roger had already made a plundering attack, when Becumen of Catania, driven out by his brother, urged him to serious invasion.

But the first plunderers were followed by a second and a third contingent, and with increasing numbers plundering became more and more difficult and assumed more definite forms.

After six weeks the plundering clansmen were withdrawn, and in the spring of 1678, also of 1679, Hamilton with his allies carried their complaints to Charles.

Near the end of the 9th century, however, the plundering expeditions which emanated from these three sources became so incessant and so widespread that we can signalize no part of west France as free from them, at the same time that the vikings wrought immense mischief in the Rhine country and in Burgundy.

In the confused years which followed, he managed with the aid of plundering bands to form a kingdom on the ruins of the Nanda dynasty in Magadha or Behar (321 B.C.).

He succeeded beyond expectation, and with his " Christian army of the Holy Faith " (Esercito Cristiano della Santa Fede), consisting of brigands, convicts, peasants and some soldiers, marched through the kingdom plundering, burning and massacring.

He entered Asia Minor and took Heraclea, plundering and burning along his whole line of march, till Nicephorus, in alarm, sued for peace.

Very soon he withdrew, and though he could not prevent the plundering of the palace, and the proclamation as caliph of another son of Motadid with the title al-Qahir billah (" the victorious through God"), he rescued Moqtadir and his mother, and at the same time his imprisoned friend Ali b.

At the approach of winter he gathered his troops into the chief cities and declined operations in the field, while the Alamannic brothers marched through Italy, killing and plundering.

Accordingly, the enraged Goths, under their chief Fritigern, streamed across the Balkans into Thrace and the country round Adrianople, plundering, burning and slaughtering as they went.

The stories of his mock marriage with Sporus, his execution of wealthy Greeks for the sake of their money, and his wholesale plundering of the temples were evidently part of the accepted tradition about him in the time of Suetonius, and are at least credible.

The troops were dissatisfied, and, being kept without pay and on short rations, took to plundering.

Our people who are out against the plundering Hottentots, can effect nothing, neither can they effect anything against us; thus during the whole week they have been vainly trying to get at our cattle, and we have been trying vainly to get at their persons; but we will hope that we may once fall in with them in fine weather, and that the Lord God will be with us.

Up to 1505 the Portuguese voyages to the East were little more than trading ventures or plundering raids, although a few " factories " for the exchange of goods were and Alba= founded in Malabar.

Antiochus punished an outburst of strife between the rivals by plundering the Temple and slaying many of the inhabitants (170 B.C.).

Its representatives continued for some time to claim the sovereignty; but the country was practically very much in the condition of Germany at about the same time - chieftains of almost independent power ruled from their castles on the hill-tops over the adjacent valleys, engaged in petty wars, and conducted plundering expeditions against the neighbouring tenants, whilst the great abbeys were places of refuge for the studious or religious, and their heads were the only rivals to the barons in social state, and in many respects the only protectors and friends of the people.

He was inaccessible to adventurers bent on plundering Egypt, but at the instance of the British government allowed the construction of a railway from Alexandria to Cairo.

Arthur now resumed the war against the English, and at the same time took vigorous measures against the plundering bands of soldiers and peasants known as routiers or ecorcheurs.

If so, parliament was told that temporal possessions ruin the church and drive out the Christian graces of faith, hope and charity; that the priesthood of the church in communion with Rome was not the priesthood Christ gave to his apostles; that the monk's vow of celibacy had for its consequence unnatural lust, and should not be imposed; that transubstantiation was a feigned miracle, and led people to idolatry; that prayers made over wine, bread, water, oil, salt, wax, incense, altars of stone, church walls, vestments, mitres, crosses, staves, were magical and should not be allowed; that kings should possess the jus episcopale, and bring good government into the church; that no special prayers should be made for the dead; that auricular confession made to the clergy, and declared to be necessary for salvation, was the root of clerical arrogance and the cause of indulgences and other abuses in pardoning sin; that all wars were against the principles of the New Testament, and were but murdering and plundering the poor to win glory for kings; that the vows of chastity laid upon nuns led to child murder; that many of the trades practised in the commonwealth, such as those of goldsmiths and armourers, were unnecessary and led to luxury and waste.

What they did was to rove about in hordes, plundering or levying blackmail.

As a result of the economic plundering of Belgium between 1940 and 1944 the damage suffered amounted to 175 billions of Belgian francs.