to despoil
2
9.3
- verb
- /dɪˈspɔɪl/
:
despojar
- Developers are despoiling the coastline by building large hotels and resorts.
- despoiled environment
Examples
-
John Steinbeck did both, evoking the natural paradise of his native California in his early books, then showing how it was despoiled by exploitation in his social novels about migrant labor.
Academic text (2009) -
The pressure to succeed economically will make effective care for marginalized people and the despoiled environment extremely difficult.
Academic text (1991) -
It is a battle to prevent powerful people from despoiling the environment.
-
Mostly, they are human-influenced or produced and have despoiled the natural environment for decades.
Academic text (2004) -
Nature seemed despoiled, covered by concrete, ruined by smog.
Academic text (1995) -
Fracking, another bad idea, ruins water supplies, causes earthquakes, and despoils the land generally.
Blog text (12) -
If a country wants to employ small children in factories, despoil its environment, or pay subsistence wages, then that is its business and no one else's.
Academic text (2000) -
The new American dream, where "we" are richer than sub-Saharan Africa, a land despoiled by centuries of wanton exploitation.
Blog text (13) -
Trade skeptics argue that trade allows richer nations to continue their excess consumption of timber products and beef, for instance, by despoiling tropical forests in developing nations, and that roads built to move products to markets further destroy or degrade forests by enabling easier colonization and exploitation.
Academic text (1998) -
The armed forces were accused of despoiling the village during their advance.
Synonyms
49
4.2
To steal things from shops during chaos
42
2.7
Remove all covering or contents from an object so it is left bare
29
8.1
To steal things by force during war or riots
26
6.0
To steal things by force, often during war or disorder
15
5.1
Make someone lose all their money or possessions
11
8.4
To take away someone's land or home so they no longer own it
2
7.6
To attack a place and take valuable things, often destroying it
1
6.1
Damage a place by force and take or destroy its things
To take things and damage a place using force, often by people
To take someone's land or property away illegally
Antonyms
How Violent
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Despoil comes from the parts de- ('remove') and spoil, like in 'the spoils of war' meaning goods taken after victory. So, to despoil is to strip a place or person of valuable things, usually by force and causing damage.