Despoil Definition & Meaning

Origin of Despoil

Middle English despoilen from Old French despoillier from Latin dēspoliāre dē- de- spoliāre to plunder (from spolium booty)

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
From Old French despoiller (> French dépouiller), from Latin dēspoliō.

From Wiktionary

He comes to despoil our beloved country.
Although at the time, no one was sure that coal, oil and other fossil fuels were anything to cause concern, the idea of free and constant power, without the need to mine or otherwise despoil the natural world, was an immense temptation.
One of the most striking of the passages in the Cid's legendary history is that wherein he is represented as forcing the new king to swear that he had no part in his brother's death; but there was cause enough without this for Alphonso's animosity against the man who had helped to despoil him of his patrimony.
The three branches of the Bourbon house, ruling in France, Austrian Spain and the Sicilies, joined with Prussia, Bavaria and the kingdom of Sardinia to despoil Maria Theresa of her heritage.
Ferdinand refused to despoil his brother's infant son, and even if he did not act on the moral ground he alleged, his sagacity must have shown him that he would be at the mercy of the men who had chosen him in such circumstances.

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