as in looting
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as in pillaging
to search through with the intent of committing robbery
the escaped convict plundered the house in search of valuables
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of plundering
Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 20 Nov. 2025
Aron Solomon on how the Meta AI copyright decision made libraries sitting ducks for AI plundering.
—Literary Hub, 27 June 2025
Literary Hub, 5 Jan. 2026
The colonists took up where Tippu Tip left off, plundering the forests for ivory and other resources.
—Jon Lee Anderson, New Yorker, 24 Nov. 2025
While plundering a dungeon lair and stealing artifacts from a museum both have heist elements to them, Skullduggery looks into the other intrigues of adventures in urban environments.
—Rob Wieland, Forbes.com, 11 Sep. 2025
The store released a black-and-white video showing the thieves, which appears to be at least four suspects, plundering the business.
—Natalie Neysa Alund, USA Today, 8 Aug. 2025
Noun
It was revealed during that trial that Low's plundering of the 1MDB sovereign wealth fund exceeded $4 billion.
—Verb
French buccaneers spent much of the seventeenth century hiding and plundering along the northwest coast of Hispaniola, eventually realizing more money could be made farming tobacco and sugar.
—Recent Examples of Synonyms for plundering
Noun
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Everyone wanted to return home soon, to take refuge, amid fears of possible looting that failed to materialize.—
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For instance, before the signing of the ceasefire agreement, there was lots of looting of humanitarian aid, and these looters were backed up.—
Verb
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Certainly, its portrait of a futuristic society dominated by raping, pillaging youth gangs speaking a bizarre Russian-English hybrid slang struck a few different nerves — as did its tale of one teenage sociopath’s questionable reprogramming back into society after a stint in prison.—
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More than a dozen others immediately flooded the shattered entrance, pillaging the place — breaking display cases and grabbing thousands of dollars in jewelry.—
Noun
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He was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon, police said.—
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Investigators quickly linked him to two similar crimes — a $2,500 robbery of Bank of America on the 1400 block of Stockton Street, and an attempt at BMO Bank on Columbus Avenue, authorities said.—
Verb
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While guarding this mysterious gorge, these good-looking sharpshooters inevitably fall in love and join forces to contain the marauding creatures.—
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Fearing the attacker’s return and marauding gangs, the family abandoned their home in a rural stretch of farmland and fruit trees and hid in the bushes.—
Verb
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Luckily for the Bears, the Packers have allowed nearly 100 more rushing yards per game without Parsons, in addition to sacking quarterbacks less than half as often.—
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The Seahawks harassed Purdy throughout the night, sacking him three times and hitting him eight more.—
Noun
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After more than a century of plunder and strife, under tyrants as diverse as King Leopold II of Belgium and Mobutu Sese Seko, the present-day DRC still occupies the dark heart of the continent in much of the world’s imagination.—
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The Venezuelan regime is broadly unpopular in Latin America; its socialism of plunder has sent millions of desperate people into Colombia and other states.—
Verb
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People were raiding stores and so forth.—
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The biggest compliment is that teams are raiding Brentford.—
Noun
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Keith Michael Lisa, 51, of Barnegat, was charged with possession of a dangerous weapon in a federal facility and depredation of federal property, Habba announced Tuesday.—
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Federal wildlife agents confirmed the two depredation events, which took place Friday and Saturday, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.—
Cite this Entry
“Plundering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/plundering. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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