despoiling 1 of 2

present participle of despoil
as in pillaging
to search through with the intent of committing robbery the burglars despoiled the art museum in search of treasures they thought they could sell to a fence

Synonyms & Similar Words

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despoiling

2 of 2

noun

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for despoiling
Noun
  • Vikings, for example, used the extra daylight to sneak in a longer pillage sesh.
    Corey Buhay, Outside Online, 19 June 2025
  • Otherwise, illicit actors will continue to profit from their pillage.
    Justyna Gudzowska, Foreign Affairs, 2 June 2025
Verb
  • Dallas sacking Washington’s quarterbacks six times — Daniels four times — on Sunday upped the Commanders’ allowed sacks total to 22 over the last five games.
    Ben Standig, The Athletic, 5 Jan. 2025
  • Dallas sacking Washington’s quarterbacks six times — Daniels four times — on Sunday upped the Commanders’ allowed sacks total to 22 over the last five games.
    Ben Standig, The Athletic, 5 Jan. 2025
Noun
  • California was also a land of plunder, a place where rampant capitalism had merged with unrealistic fantasy.
    Andrew Moore, New York Times, 15 May 2025
  • At the Jeu de Paume museum, Valland took many risks to safeguard its treasures and record the massive plunder of artwork across France.
    Pat Tompkins, AFAR Media, 18 June 2025
Noun
  • Last Friday, Damien Marshall and other King & Spalding attorneys on behalf of MSG filed a memorandum of law in opposition to Oakley’s motion for what are known as spoliation sanctions, meaning a punishment for failure to preserve relevant evidence.
    Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 14 May 2025
  • Chain of Custody Issues: The longer the delay between an incident and preserving mobile evidence, the more opportunities exist for spoliation claims about data modification or tampering.
    Lars Daniel, Forbes, 24 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • So any trait that allows a relatively slow, soft-bodied animal to avoid predation has to be taken seriously.
    Melissa Cristina Márquez, Forbes.com, 17 July 2025
  • Read More: The extraordinarily large eyes of colossal and giant squid, for instance, mean that these enormous creatures can spot a sperm whale from hundreds of meters away, according to research, enabling the squid to avoid predation.
    Sean Mowbray, Discover Magazine, 12 June 2025
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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“Despoiling.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/despoiling. Accessed 23 Jul. 2025.

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