Depredation

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An act of consuming agricultural resources (crops, livestock), especially as plunder. countable, uncountable

    "An animal that produces only two to four young per year cannot suffer vast depredations on the adult population without drastic effects."

  2. 2
    an act of plundering and pillaging and marauding wordnet
  3. 3
    A raid or predatory attack. countable, uncountable

    "Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman had long known that his fragile supply and communication lines through Tennessee were in serious jeopardy because of depredations by Forrest's cavalry raids. (Battle of Brice's Crossroads)"

  4. 4
    (usually plural) a destructive action wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
ravagebanditrybloodbathblue ruinbreakupbrigandage

Example

More examples

"The depredation of the palace was irreparable."

Etymology

From Middle French déprédation, from Latin depraedatio.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.