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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
despoil
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ The sandy beaches are being despoiled by an oil spill.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ It made little difference if a dreadful rash despoiled both little faces.
▪ On the contrary, they saw themselves as purifying a church that had become diluted, dehydrated, and despoiled.
▪ Regulated, socialised economies trample on human dignity, despoil the natural environment and depress economic performance.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
despoil

despoil \de*spoil"\, n. Spoil. [Obs.]
--Wolsey.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
despoil

c.1300, from Old French despoillier (12c., Modern French dépouiller) "to strip, rob, deprive of, steal, borrow," from Latin despoliare "to rob, despoil, plunder," from de- "entirely" (see de-) + spoliare "to strip of clothing, rob," from spolium "armor, booty" (see spoil (v.)). Related: Despoiled; despoiling.

Wiktionary
despoil

n. (context obsolete English) plunder; spoliation. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To deprive for spoil; to take spoil from; to plunder; to rob; to pillage. 2 (context transitive English) To violently strip (someone), with indirect object '''of''' their possessions etc.; to rob. 3 (context obsolete transitive or reflexive English) To strip (someone) of their clothes; to undress.

WordNet
despoil
  1. v. steal goods; take as spoils; "During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners" [syn: plunder, loot, reave, strip, rifle, ransack, pillage, foray]

  2. destroy and strip of its possession; "The soldiers raped the beautiful country" [syn: rape, spoil, violate, plunder]

Usage examples of "despoil".

Swiss nation is in my time of no legs invaded and despoiled by stronger and evil hated and neighboring nations, who claim as in the Anschluss of Hitler that they are friends and are not invading the Swiss but conferring on us gifts of alliance.

But in this expedition or pilgrimage, his power was exercised in the administration of justice: he reformed the licentious polygamy of the Arabs, relieved the tributaries from extortion and cruelty, and chastised the luxury of the Saracens, by despoiling them of their rich silks, and dragging them on their faces in the dirt.

That mysterious circle was enlarged to an indefinite extent, by the verbal or written donation of Charlemagne, who, in the first transports of his victory, despoiled himself and the Greek emperor of the cities and islands which had formerly been annexed to the Exarchate.

I saw her every day and always in silence till the fatal mark had disappeared, but during these mad visits the poison of desire was so instilled into my veins that if she had known my state of mind she might have despoiled me of all I possessed for a single favour.

I asked the wretch what he had done with the gold and jewels he had stolen from me, and he told me that he had lost the whole of it in furnishing funds for a bank at Biribi, that he had been despoiled by his own associates, and had been poor and miserable ever since.

I figure that if you kill enough people and lay waste to enough kingdoms and despoil the countryside and stuff, you can call yourself Binky and people will still wet themselves when they hear it.

The one who burns my towns, steals from my treasury, robs my caravans, despoils my priests.

As he fell, the smaller darkies would pounce upon him, and in an instant despoil him of his blanket and perhaps the larger portion of his warm clothing.

Bowing deeply, he gave a mocking salute to the despoiled tourist and melted into the ensemble of dancers as the next soloist leaped into a series of handsprings and the caravan with its eerie, wailing Fiata moved onward toward the Baguette.

They find a land despoiled by bulldozers and dredges that have torn down mountains, dammed rivers, and converted the beauty spots of nature into homesites to accommodate a population that is running wild.

Who, for the love of thing that lasteth not, Despoils himself for ever of THAT LOVE.

But the immediate effect on the flustered and despoiled unfortunate one had been great enough to justify Lopez in taking strong steps if strong steps could in any way benefit himself.

He had been despoiled of everything, and threatened with imprisonment.

Opet, and to despoil their tomb, do so at your peril, and may the curse of Astarte and great Baal hound you to your own graves.

Bible, a bloodsoaked major's cockade crowning a sightless eyeball and the faintly heaving breasts of despoiled nudity faded away before the sparkling overtures of a sometime movie star pursuing the active life with a tennis racket no longer hampered by incontinence, and they woke to the clatter of glassware on a kitchen tray.