rapine
pronunciation
How to pronounce rapine in British English:
UK ['ræpɪn]
How to pronounce rapine in American English:
US ['ræpɪn]
-
- Noun:
- the act of despoiling a country in warfare
Word Origin
- rapine (n.)
- early 15c., "plunder," from Middle French rapine (12c.), from Latin rapina "act of robbery, plundering, pillage," from rapere "seize, carry off, rob" (see rapid).
Example
- 1. The same rapine prevailed also by land .
- 2. Land ravaged by pillage and rapine .
- 3. The soldiers got their food by rapine .
- 4. The crusades are now no more than excuses for looting , murder and rapine .
- 5. It does not help that britain and other european former imperial powers have developed a blithe amnesia about their own rapine past ; nor that japan cannot face making a fulsome apology for its brutal abuse of china during an occupation , ending in 1945 , that killed millions .