Despoliation

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A stripping or plundering; spoliation. countable, uncountable

    "Time has taken a terrible revenge upon mankind for his despoliation of the valleys and his defilement of the mountains, yet the industries and the railways of South Wales still put the bravest front upon an outlook which all may hope is becoming less saddening and less grim."

  2. 2
    the act of stripping and taking by force wordnet

Example

More examples

"Time has taken a terrible revenge upon mankind for his despoliation of the valleys and his defilement of the mountains, yet the industries and the railways of South Wales still put the bravest front upon an outlook which all may hope is becoming less saddening and less grim."

Etymology

From Latin dēspoliātiō, from dēspoliō.

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