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The Collaborative International Dictionary
maraud

maraud \ma*raud"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Marauded; p. pr. & vb. n. Marauding.] [F. marauder, fr. maraud vagabond, OF. marault; of uncertain origin, perh. for malault, fr. (assumed) LL. malaldus; fr. L. malus bad, ill + a suffix of German origin (cf. Herald). Cf. Malice.] To rove in quest of plunder; to make an excursion for booty; to plunder. ``Marauding hosts.''
--Milman.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
maraud

1690s, from French marauder (17c.), from Middle French maraud "rascal" (15c.), of unknown origin, perhaps from French dialectal maraud "tomcat," echoic of its cry. A word popularized in several languages during the Thirty Years War (Spanish merodear, German marodiren, marodieren "to maraud," marodebruder "straggler, deserter") by punning association with Count Mérode, imperialist general. Related: Marauded; marauding.

Wiktionary
maraud

vb. (context intransitive English) To move about in roving fashion looking for plunder.

WordNet
maraud
  1. n. a sudden short attack [syn: foray, raid]

  2. v. raid and rove in search of booty; "marauding rebels overran the countryside"

Usage examples of "maraud".

He was certain that the marauding army of Emich was aware of their vulnerability.

There were barriers of class in the city, invisible lines that could not be crossed by a marauding loud-mouthed oik from south London.

French army, under General Breme, was sent on the marauding errand of demanding the public purse of its citizens.

Ring, photino birds were flicking through hyperspace to join the battle, and soon the marauding Qax were surrounded.

Unwilling to risk his new empire by returning to Cross Creek as the war draws closer threatening both his wife and mother, only the Major is there recuperating from a minor wound with an abundance of drink when a marauding band abruptly materializes to shoot him dead after degrading him mercilessly, tormenting the older woman beyond endurance and then in a prolonged scene reveling in its own depiction of cruelty raping the younger one in almost clinical detail.

From this base they marauded southward, hitting the Frelimo garrisons and strafing and raiding the railway line between Beira on the coast and Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe.

They left one of the ships stopped and smoking, and cut eastward across the top of the flat Chiba Peninsula at treetop height to Naruto, which the day strikes seemed to have put entirely out of commission, Katori where there was no damage but no activity either, and finally Choshi, where they strafed some parked Jacks and Zekes and ran into light, but highly accurate, AA which holed the tail of one of the marauding Hellcats.

Ruby comes in on Mondays with her warrior cohort and attacks the coffeehouse with an assortment of high-tech blasting gear that would whack Godzilla into submission: those single-track military minds never think to ask their cleaning staff for help in giant lethal marauding creature matters.

Robert Sadler will no doubt be caught by some marauding baron as he cometh again from Chester, and he will be thrown into the dungeon, and then my lady will see.

At decreasing intervals, marauding bands of Gora came snooping around.

It was the men without the Marxian vision of growth and discipline who were forever trying to lead little marauding bands against the governments of Europe.

But also those Eastern lands became impossible to traverse, what with the depredations of Huns, Tartars, Mongols, marauding back and forth across Asia.

I had heard of Muslim fanatics, Mujahedin from the Middle East, Iran and Saudi Arabia, who also marauded through Bosnia and would kill any Serb on sight.

Ile met head-on the marauding free traders who were attempting to lure the Naskapi to their shore trading posts, ranging far back into the fur country to finalize his trades and claim defacto exclusivity over a territory outside the HBCs Charter.

Then there are these marauding Nguni imp is sweeping through the land.