pillaging

Meanings

1. 1noununcountable

   The violent taking of goods from a place, especially in war or during a riot.

   Grammar: Not used in the plural: the pillaging continued for days.

   Patterns

   • the pillaging of somewhere

   The pillaging of the town lasted three days.

   Historians describe the pillaging that followed the siege.

   Looting and pillaging broke out during the blackout.

2. 2verbtransitive

   The -ing form of pillage: stealing goods and wrecking a place by force.

   Grammar: Takes an object when used as a verb form: soldiers were pillaging the village.

   Patterns

   • pillaging a place

   The raiders were pillaging farms along the coast.

   Armies pillaging the countryside left families hungry.

Common combinations

pillaging and looting

Pillaging and looting followed the invasion.

pillaging of villages

The pillaging of villages forced people to flee.

pillaging raiders

Pillaging raiders burned the harbor.

stop the pillaging

Leaders tried to stop the pillaging.

widespread pillaging

Widespread pillaging followed the collapse of order.

Synonyms and how they differ

looting

Looting is the usual word for stealing during a riot or disaster, while pillaging suggests organized armed groups.

plundering

Plundering is very close, but often suggests taking valuable goods from a defeated place.

raiding

Raiding means a sudden attack on a place, not necessarily to steal everything.

ransacking

Ransacking stresses searching a place roughly and making a mess, whether or not it is during a war.

Opposites

Word family

pillage verb

to rob a place violently

pillager noun

a person who pillages

pillaged adjective

robbed by force

Commonly confused: pillaging or village?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “pillaging”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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