Associations to the word «Despoil»

Wiktionary

DESPOIL, verb. (transitive) To deprive for spoil; to take spoil from; to plunder; to rob; to pillage.
DESPOIL, verb. (transitive) To violently strip (someone), with indirect object of their possessions etc.; to rob.
DESPOIL, verb. (obsolete) (transitive or reflexive) To strip (someone) of their clothes; to undress.
DESPOIL, noun. (obsolete) Plunder; spoliation.

Dictionary definition

DESPOIL, verb. Steal goods; take as spoils; "During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners".
DESPOIL, verb. Destroy and strip of its possession; "The soldiers raped the beautiful country".

Wise words

Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.
William Butler Yeats