noun- A surprise attack by a small armed force.
- A sudden forcible entry into a place by police: a raid on a gambling den.
- An entrance into another's territory for the purpose of seizing goods or valuables.
- A predatory operation mounted against a competitor, especially an attempt to lure away the personnel or membership of a competing organization.
- An attempt to seize control of a company, as by acquiring a majority of its stock.
- An attempt by speculators to drive stock prices down by coordinated selling.
verb raid·ed,
raid·ing,
raids verb, transitive To make a raid on.
verb, intransitive To conduct a raid or participate in one.
Origin:
Origin: Scots, raid on horseback
Origin: , from Middle English rade
Origin: , from Old English rād, a riding, road; see reidh- in Indo-European roots
.
Related Forms:
Word History: Few soldiers traveling a road to carry out a raid would connect the words
road and
raid. However, both descend from the same Old English word
rād. Old English
rād meant “the act of riding” and “the act of riding with a hostile intent; that is, a raid,” senses that no longer exist for our word
road. The
ai in
raid represents the standard development in the northern dialects of Old English long
a, while the
oa in
road represents the standard development of Old English long
a in the rest of the English dialects. It was left to Sir Walter Scott to revive the Scots form
raid with the sense “a military expedition on horseback.” The Scots were not the only ones conducting raids, however. We find these words in the Middle English
Coventry Leet Book: “aftur a Rode … made uppon the Scottes at thende of this last somer.” While
road is not used in this way any more in English, a trace of this usage is still detectable in the compound
inroad, literally “a riding or advance on or in.”