plunder

Meaning

1. To pillage, take or destroy all the goods of, by force (as in war); to raid, sack.
2. To take (goods) by pillage.
3. To take by force or wrongfully; to commit robbery or looting, to raid.
4. To make extensive (over)use of, as if by plundering; to use or use up wrongfully.
5. To take unexpectedly.

take by force

carrying off

trample down

tread down

commit robbery

cut to ribbons

lay waste to

stolen goods

stolen property

turn upside down

scatter about

spoilation

abuse

waste

banditti

mess about with

spolitation

depradation

make in confusion

over-run

rasnsacking

raid a village

Frequency

Hyphenated as

plund‧er

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈplʌndə/

Cognate with Dutch

Cognate with Western Frisian

Cognate with Saterland Frisian

Cognate with Middle Dutch

Cognate with Dutch

Cognate with Western Frisian

In summary

Recorded since 1632 during the Thirty Years War, native British use since the Cromwellian Civil War. Borrowed from German plündern (“to loot”), from Middle High German, from Middle Low German plunderen. Cognate with Dutch plunderen, West Frisian plonderje, Saterland Frisian plunnerje. Probably denominal from a word for “household goods, clothes, bedding”; compare Middle Dutch plunder, German Plunder (“stuff”), Dutch and West Frisian plunje (“clothes”).

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