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despoliation
noun
de·spo·li·a·tion
di-ˌspō-lē-ˈā-shən
: the action or process of despoiling : spoliation
Examples of despoliation in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
For that reason, the Abraham Accords lie in tatters - a despoliation very deliberately aimed at by Iran and Hamas via October 7.
—Melik Kaylan, Forbes, 30 Sep. 2024
Landscape exists to register ideas, like dispossession or despoliation, but not feelings.
—Philip Kennicott, Washington Post, 5 Oct. 2023
Related Christopher Ciccone watched from the Radio City green room, thinking of his father and grandmother, who, like millions of other TV viewers, would see the show at home and be stunned by what appeared to be the on-air despoliation of a bride — by herself.
—Mary Gabriel, Rolling Stone, 27 Sep. 2023
Millions of investors are participating in the despoliation.
—Ian Frazier, The New York Review of Books, 19 Jan. 2023
Environmentalists, concerned about the despoliation of nature, have been lobbying for the concrete to be removed and the river rewilded, with new marshes and wetlands to green the city and mitigate flooding.
—Michael Kimmelman, New York Times, 10 Nov. 2022
The book’s scope is comprehensive, documenting the grandeur and the despoliation of the region’s geography and the lives and spaces of its poorest—and richest—residents.
—Richard Rothman, Harper's Magazine, 15 Apr. 2021
And yet the saboteurs of Earth First!, the Animal Liberation Front, and the ELF no more launched a mass movement against the despoliation of the earth than did the responsible statesmen of the Sierra Club.
—Benjamin Kunkel, The New Republic, 26 May 2021
Trump also may have a motive for his environmental policies — enriching timber companies and the oil and gas industry, despoliation of the environment being merely collateral damage.
—Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 25 Nov. 2020
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Word History
Etymology
Late Latin despoliation-, despoliatio, from despoliare
First Known Use
circa 1657, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near despoliation
Cite this Entry
“Despoliation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/despoliation. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
Kids Definition
despoliation
noun
de·spo·li·a·tion
di-ˌspō-lē-ˈā-shən
: the action or process of despoiling
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