English Dictionary |
PILLAGE
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Dictionary entry overview: What does pillage mean?
• PILLAGE (noun)
The noun PILLAGE has 2 senses:
1. goods or money obtained illegally
2. the act of stealing valuable things from a place
Familiarity information: PILLAGE used as a noun is rare.
• PILLAGE (verb)
The verb PILLAGE has 1 sense:
1. steal goods; take as spoils
Familiarity information: PILLAGE used as a verb is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Goods or money obtained illegally
Classified under:
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
Synonyms:
booty; dirty money; loot; pillage; plunder; prize; swag
Hypernyms ("pillage" is a kind of...):
stolen property (property that has been stolen)
Meronyms (parts of "pillage"):
cut (a share of the profits)
Derivation:
pillage (steal goods; take as spoils)
Sense 2
Meaning:
The act of stealing valuable things from a place
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Synonyms:
pillage; pillaging; plundering
Context example:
his plundering of the great authors
Hypernyms ("pillage" is a kind of...):
aggression; hostility (violent action that is hostile and usually unprovoked)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "pillage"):
banditry (the practice of plundering in gangs)
rape; rapine (the act of despoiling a country in warfare)
looting; robbery (plundering during riots or in wartime)
despoilation; despoilment; despoliation; spoil; spoilation; spoliation (the act of stripping and taking by force)
devastation; ravaging (plundering with excessive damage and destruction)
depredation; predation (an act of plundering and pillaging and marauding)
sack (the plundering of a place by an army or mob; usually involves destruction and slaughter)
Conjugation: |




Past simple: pillaged


Past participle: pillaged


-ing form: pillaging


Sense 1
Meaning:
Steal goods; take as spoils
Classified under:
Verbs of buying, selling, owning
Synonyms:
despoil; foray; loot; pillage; plunder; ransack; reave; rifle; strip
Context example:
During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners
Hypernyms (to "pillage" is one way to...):
take (take by force)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "pillage"):
deplume; displume (strip of honors, possessions, or attributes)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
pillage (goods or money obtained illegally)
pillager (someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war))
pillaging (the act of stealing valuable things from a place)
Context examples
I was surprised to find corruption grown so high and so quick in that empire, by the force of luxury so lately introduced; which made me less wonder at many parallel cases in other countries, where vices of all kinds have reigned so much longer, and where the whole praise, as well as pillage, has been engrossed by the chief commander, who perhaps had the least title to either.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
We have had a citizen from Montauban here this very day, who told us such a tale of sack and murder and pillage that it moved our blood; but our wrath was turned upon the man who was in authority over them.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
All is well with us here, save that Pepin hath the mange on his back, and Pommers hath scarce yet got clear of his stiffness from being four days on ship-board, and the more so because the sea was very high, and we were like to founder on account of a hole in her side, which was made by a stone cast at us by certain sea-rovers, who may the saints have in their keeping, for they have gone from amongst us, as has young Terlake, and two-score mariners and archers, who would be the more welcome here as there is like to be a very fine war, with much honor and all hopes of advancement, for which I go to gather my Company together, who are now at Montaubon, where they pillage and destroy; yet I hope that, by God's help, I may be able to show that I am their master, even as, my sweet lady, I am thy servant.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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