PLUNDER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does plunder mean? 

• PLUNDER (noun)
  The noun PLUNDER has 1 sense:

1. goods or money obtained illegally

  Familiarity information: PLUNDER used as a noun is very rare.

• PLUNDER (verb)
  The verb PLUNDER has 4 senses:

1. take illegally; of intellectual property

2. plunder (a town) after capture

3. steal goods; take as spoils

4. destroy and strip of its possession

  Familiarity information: PLUNDER used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PLUNDER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Goods or money obtained illegally

Classified under:

Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession

Synonyms:

booty; dirty money; loot; pillage; plunder; prize; swag

Hypernyms ("plunder" is a kind of...):

stolen property (property that has been stolen)

Meronyms (parts of "plunder"):

cut (a share of the profits)

Derivation:

plunder (steal goods; take as spoils)

plunder (plunder (a town) after capture)

plunder (take illegally; of intellectual property)

• PLUNDER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they plunder    ... he / she / it plunders   
Past simple: plundered   
Past participle: plundered   
-ing form: plundering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take illegally; of intellectual property

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

loot; plunder

Context example:

This writer plundered from famous authors

Hypernyms (to "plunder" is one way to...):

rip; rip off; steal (take without the owner's consent)

Domain category:

crime; criminal offence; criminal offense; law-breaking ((criminal law) an act punishable by law; usually considered an evil act)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They plunder the goods

Derivation:

plunder (goods or money obtained illegally)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Plunder (a town) after capture

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

plunder; sack

Context example:

the barbarians sacked Rome

Hypernyms (to "plunder" is one way to...):

take (take by force)

"Plunder" entails doing...:

destroy; ruin (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

plunder (goods or money obtained illegally)

plunderage (the act of plundering (especially the embezzlement of goods on shipboard))

plunderer (someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war))

plundering (the act of stealing valuable things from a place)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Steal goods; take as spoils

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

despoil; foray; loot; pillage; plunder; ransack; reave; rifle; strip

Context example:

During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners

Hypernyms (to "plunder" is one way to...):

take (take by force)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "plunder"):

deplume; displume (strip of honors, possessions, or attributes)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

plunder (goods or money obtained illegally)

plunderer (someone who takes spoils or plunder (as in war))

plundering (the act of stealing valuable things from a place)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Destroy and strip of its possession

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

despoil; plunder; rape; spoil; violate

Context example:

The soldiers raped the beautiful country

Hypernyms (to "plunder" is one way to...):

destroy; ruin (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

plundering (the act of stealing valuable things from a place)

 Context examples 

By my hilt! camarades, I think that I may let my plunder speak for itself.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Why should a thief try to break in at a bedroom window, where there could be no hope of any plunder, and why should he come with a long knife in his hand?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The idea was that one of you was to marry her, and the other have a share of the plunder.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Filling a coffee-pot and frying-pan with part of my plunder, and taking some chinaware from the cabin pantry, I left Wolf Larsen lying in the sun and went ashore.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

These crosses stand for the names of ships or towns that they sank or plundered.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Their design was to turn pirates and, plunder the Spaniards, which they could not do till they got more men.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

That Mr. W. has been for years deluded and plundered, in every conceivable manner, to the pecuniary aggrandisement of the avaricious, false, and grasping—HEEP.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In the Channel we fell in with the frigate Minerva from the Western Ocean, with her lee ports under water and her hatches bursting with the plunder which had been too valuable to trust to the prize crews.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was when I served under Sir Robert Knolles, before the days of the Company; and we came by good plunder at the sacking of it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Of course, if they had been merely after plunder they would at least have made some attempt to search for it.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)