RAPINE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rapine mean? 

• RAPINE (noun)
  The noun RAPINE has 1 sense:

1. the act of despoiling a country in warfare

  Familiarity information: RAPINE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAPINE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of despoiling a country in warfare

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

rape; rapine

Hypernyms ("rapine" is a kind of...):

pillage; pillaging; plundering (the act of stealing valuable things from a place)

 Context examples 

Broken fences, crumbling walls, vineyards littered with stones, the shattered arches of bridges—look where you might, the signs of ruin and rapine met the eye.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My master, continuing his discourse, said, “there was nothing that rendered the Yahoos more odious, than their undistinguishing appetite to devour every thing that came in their way, whether herbs, roots, berries, the corrupted flesh of animals, or all mingled together: and it was peculiar in their temper, that they were fonder of what they could get by rapine or stealth, at a greater distance, than much better food provided for them at home. If their prey held out, they would eat till they were ready to burst; after which, nature had pointed out to them a certain root that gave them a general evacuation.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)