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despoil

[dih-spoil] / dɪˈspɔɪl /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

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There is an economic aspect to the story in that greed is driving developers to despoil these areas because they see profit.

From Salon ● Mar. 2, 2023

The slightest mistake would despoil the land and the waters, and America has seen plenty of such mistakes over the years.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2023

Rather than let some new owner despoil the hot fudge formula, the owners kept the secret original Brown recipe when they closed, and still sell jars of hot fudge online.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2022

That measure is opposed by members of the local Mura tribe, who say mining would despoil the natural habitat upon which they depend.

From Reuters ● Mar. 23, 2022

Yet we have made the vow; and though no other human generation hath done other than despoil, perhaps we shall be the first.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

Unfortunately, your visit to Glacier NP was an example of exactly the kind of behavior that despoils and degrades our parks and wildernesses.

From New York Times ● Sep. 20, 2016

There are many benefits of not selling water in disposable bottles in national parks, including reducing trash at parks, carbon emissions and the litter that despoils our parks, landscape and waterways.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 24, 2015

Roger is jealous when Jane flirts with Manishewitz Jr.—“I thought you liked the crabs rangoon here!”—and despoils her new, Roger-free apartment accordingly.

From Slate ● May 14, 2012

History's biggest oil spill despoils the French shoreline Like a grotesque, hook-shaped inkblot, the oil spread menacingly across the water.

From Time Magazine Archive

An elegant small and anonymous engraving of a young soldier, whom Death strikes with his dart whilst he despoils him of his hat and feather.

From The Dance of Death Exhibited in Elegant Engravings on Wood with a Dissertation on the Several Representations of that Subject but More Particularly on Those Ascribed to Macaber and Hans Holbein by Francis Douce

Metaphors may have no place at a concentration camp, but it’s hard to look at this beautiful enclosed space and not see it, perversely, as the most despoiled of Edens.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2023

Too much of Seattle has been despoiled by the greed and power of developers.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2022

They despoiled the building with their urine and feces.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 16, 2021

The natural environment with which Native Americans had established a harmonious and symbiotic relationship, was similarly despoiled by the twin logic of expropriation and colonization that spread under the logic of manifest destiny.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 10, 2021

That evening, on his return from business, he found his carnation-bed despoiled, and the tiny imprint of slippered feet silently bearing witness to the small thief.

From Donahoe's Magazine, Volume XV, No. 3 Volume XV (Jan 1886-Jul 1886) by Various

Miners hauled in hydraulic equipment to dig and dredge and strip the mountains, polluting the runoff so badly that in 1874, the flatlanders who depended on that water went to court to stop the despoiling.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2025

Plastic, along with other litter, is also despoiling the landscape and polluting our waterways.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2023

Residents of Papua New Guinea have accused the mining company Rio Tinto of violating their human rights by despoiling the land where they live.

From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2022

This waste is clogging landfills, despoiling the oceans and harming wildlife.

From Reuters ● Dec. 28, 2021

“We are on the trail of a gang of international thieves who came to France for the purpose of despoiling our museums,” a police spokesman announced.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day




Vocabulary lists containing despoil


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