[syn: plunder, despoil, loot, reave, strip, rifle, ransack, pillage, foray]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pillage \Pil"lage\, n. [F., fr. piller to plunder. See Pill to
plunder.]
1. The act of pillaging; robbery. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. That which is taken from another or others by open force,
particularly and chiefly from enemies in war; plunder;
spoil; booty.
[1913 Webster]
Which pillage they with merry march bring home.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Plunder; rapine; spoil; depredation.
Usage: Pillage, Plunder. Pillage refers particularly to
the act of stripping the sufferers of their goods,
while plunder refers to the removal of the things thus
taken; but the words are freely interchanged.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pillage \Pil"lage\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Pillaged; p. pr. & vb.
n. Pillaging.]
To strip of money or goods by open violence; to plunder; to
spoil; to lay waste; as, to pillage the camp of an enemy.
[1913 Webster]
Mummius . . . took, pillaged, and burnt their city.
--Arbuthnot.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Pillage \Pil"lage\, v. i.
To take spoil; to plunder; to ravage.
[1913 Webster]
They were suffered to pillage wherever they went.
--Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
pillage
n 1: goods or money obtained illegally [syn: loot, booty,
pillage, plunder, prize, swag, dirty money]
2: the act of stealing valuable things from a place; "the
plundering of the Parthenon"; "his plundering of the great
authors" [syn: plundering, pillage, pillaging]
v 1: steal goods; take as spoils; "During the earthquake people
looted the stores that were deserted by their owners" [syn:
plunder, despoil, loot, reave, strip, rifle,
ransack, pillage, foray]