plunder

Meanings

Verb

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

Noun

• An instance of plundering.
• The loot attained by plundering.
• Baggage; luggage.

Origin

• Recorded since 1632 during the Thirty Years War, native British use since the Cromwellian Civil War. Borrowed from German plündern, 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, Plunder, Dutch and West Frisian plunje.