despoliation

Definition of despoliationnext

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of despoliation On social media, Tan was pugilistic to the point of belligerence, casting his political enemies as corrupt malefactors responsible for the despoliation of his beloved city. — Literary Hub, 15 Oct. 2025 In the face of such extensive despoliation, grassroots opposition has emerged. — Scott W. Stern, The Atlantic, 2 Oct. 2025 The two latest examples of that despoliation are the Regina Bypass, an expensive highway completed in 2019, and the Global Transportation Hub, an expensive logistics center (canada’s premier inland port) built in 2009. — Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 19 Sep. 2025 From Central America to West Africa, Greece to Indonesia, Clapp serves up a stirring picture of the deliberate and surprisingly profitable despoliation of one half of the planet by the other. — Ian Volner, New York Times, 1 May 2025 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for despoliation
Noun
  • This is among the many depredations that this supposedly mainstream Administration has committed.
    — David Remnick, New Yorker, 11 Oct. 2026
  • That compares with 21 depredations by wolves so far this year, with about $25,000 paid to ranchers whose cattle were killed by wolves.
    — Andrew McKean, Outdoor Life, 23 Sep. 2026
Noun
  • In April 2023, Towsley received a tip from an inmate at a Florida prison that another inmate might know about Heron’s murder — Hanfield, who was sentenced to prison in 2008 for a robbery in Broward County and is serving a 25-year sentence.
    — Angie DiMichele, Sun Sentinel, 18 Oct. 2026
  • Two felony robbery charges were dismissed as part of that plea.
    — Jim Woods, Chicago Tribune, 17 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • The interior ministry says acid has been hurled in some cases, and that people intent on destruction and looting have grafted themselves onto the high schoolers’ movement.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 13 Oct. 2026
  • The looting targeted the TPLF administration office, the regional police headquarters and some shops, Filmon said Sunday.
    — Rodney Muhumuza, Los Angeles Times, 4 Oct. 2026
Noun
  • In Nolan’s telling, his deceit and plundering portend the collapse of the Bronze Age—a foreboding warning about greedy, fading empires that feels a little too relevant.
    — Natasha O'Neill, Vanity Fair, 16 July 2026
  • Some have traveled farther as part of colonial-era collections — as far as the British Museum — and been returned; a story unto itself about the plundering of the natural world in the age of empire, and institutions reckoning with their inheritance.
    — Tom Page, CNN Money, 19 Mar. 2026
Noun
  • Homer may have viewed Odysseus’s deceit and pillaging as glorious.
    — Luis Parrales, The Atlantic, 26 July 2026
  • Taking the Scenic Route Home After their successful sneak-attack pillaging of Troy, Odysseus’ comrade Menelaus (Jon Bernthal) and his men pack up and head back to Sparta.
    — Whitney Friedlander, Vulture, 17 July 2026
Noun
  • Article continues below Unfortunately, a passing asteroid deposits a killer alien robot in their midst, and the soldiers must fend for themselves as this marauding mech stalks them with guns and lasers blazing.
    — Jeff Spry, Space.com, 10 Mar. 2026
  • Rutter, the club’s record £40m buy from Leeds United, was an instant hit last season with insatiable work rate and marauding runs until an ankle injury ruled him out from March for the rest of the campaign.
    — Andy Naylor, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2026
Noun
  • Their rackets—plunder, opium trafficking, and much else—were often run not by members of established yakuza gangs but by fixers and political operators who exploited their connections with the Imperial Japanese Army.
    — Ian Buruma, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
  • The law came in response to the historic genocide against Indigenous peoples, the forcible removal from their ancestral lands and widespread plunder of Indian grave sites by European settlers, the American government and zealous archaeologists.
    — Sam Tabachnik, Denver Post, 12 Sep. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Despoliation.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/despoliation. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

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