despoil applies to looting or robbing without suggesting accompanying destruction.

To deprive of something valuable, especially by force; rob: The invaders despoiled the town of its art...

The extraction process -- called fracking -- had the potential to make landowners rich and to despoil the ground and pollute the water.

Jul 17, 2025 · despoil (third-person singular simple present despoils, present participle despoiling, simple past and past participle despoiled) (transitive) To plunder; to pillage; take spoil from. quotations

DESPOIL meaning: 1 : to severely damage or ruin (a place); 2 : to forcefully take what is valuable from (a place)

Definition of despoil verb in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.

despoil - WordReference English dictionary, questions, discussion and forums. All Free.

DESPOIL definition: to strip of possessions, things of value, etc.; rob; plunder; pillage. See examples of despoil used in a sentence.

To despoil a place means to make it less attractive, valuable, or important by taking things away from it or by destroying it.

Despoil is to spoil, only worse. You may spoil a dinner party by being late, but we all despoil the earth with pollution and over-consumption. The Latin root of despoil meant "to strip or rob" and although …