How to Use pillage in a Sentence

pillage

1 of 2 noun
  • The people living in the Nordic world during the Viking age did raid and pillage.
    National Geographic, 22 Jan. 2017
  • The Genghis Khans who come to rape and pillage are never good for the Bristol Bay fishery.
    John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 31 July 2021
  • In a bid to prevent the pillage, Kim started a Reddit thread three months ago.
    The Washington Post, The Mercury News, 10 Jan. 2017
  • Conquer, pillage, and blow things up, making the same mistakes that doomed them to search for new lands in the first place.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 18 Apr. 2020
  • In the annals of colonial exploitation, few episodes were as brazen as the pillage of Benin.
    Wsj Books Staff, WSJ, 4 June 2021
  • Considering all the wars and all the rape and pillage that has taken place?
    Ellen McGirt, Fortune, 15 Aug. 2019
  • Back at the pillage ants' home nest, a typical colony includes about four workers and a dozen slaves.
    Elizabeth Preston, Discover Magazine, 14 Jan. 2014
  • When, if ever, does an act of rescue become an act of pillage?
    David Brown, Smithsonian Magazine, 1 Dec. 2022
  • Once the gold or bitcoin starts to dry up, people turn angry, looking for scapegoats and pillage.
    Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2023
  • Beyond these black sites, front-line communities face the threat of pillage.
    Jack Losh, Washington Post, 26 June 2017
  • In 1956, Graham compared the Soviet Union to a gangster set loose to murder and pillage.
    David Briggs, cleveland.com, 21 Feb. 2018
  • Señorita Navarro opened the door and was greeted by language of the vilest sort from marauders whose sole intent seemed to be to loot and pillage.
    Robert Kolarik, San Antonio Express-News, 5 Mar. 2018
  • The concept of white supremacy is one of the oldest racist philosophies, which originated from their need to explain their need to rape, pillage and conquer the world.
    Michael Harriot, The Root, 18 Aug. 2017
  • In Maeve's understanding, the Ghost Nation showed up in the name of violence, to attack, pillage and plunder.
    refinery29.com, 11 June 2018
  • The tentacles of the Western quest for domination are still finding new ways to dig into the earth and pillage for profit.
    Alicia Lutes, USA TODAY, 8 Mar. 2021
  • The idea of a paradise lost — or, more accurately, stolen and desecrated, the M.O. of centuries of colonial pillage — looms large here, and its fallout is all around.
    Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 11 Nov. 2021
  • That patchwork, conservationists argue, has left the high seas open to pillage.
    Somini Sengupta, New York Times, 2 Aug. 2017
  • What about the actual diabolical activity—the violence, the rape, the pillage, the sheer wastage of lives?
    James Wood, The New Yorker, 24 Jan. 2022
  • Pass rush pillage That 2002 defense was supercharged by a ferocious front four led by one of the greatest Buckeyes ever, the late defensive end Will Smith.
    cleveland, 27 Dec. 2019
  • Watch as Violette and Jenna pillage through each drawer, discovering some French skincare—and haircare!—secrets along the way.
    Jenna Rosenstein, Harper's BAZAAR, 18 July 2018
  • Considering all the wars and all the rapes and pillages taken place and whatever happened to culture after society?
    Luke Johnson, Fortune, 15 Aug. 2019
  • The rebels are depicted as a rag-tag band of bandits, emerging from the bush on motorcycles to shoot the local population and pillage police stations.
    Sebastian Shukla, CNN, 28 May 2021
  • But writing a history of empire, pillage, bloodthirstiness and dogma cannot be done in a vacuum, ignoring the dark side of their appeal.
    Washington Post, 17 Dec. 2021
  • Wilson champions the image of a pirate ship, but another founder opposes the metaphor: pirates pillage.
    Paige Williams, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2020
  • FanDuel and DraftKings are optimized for power players to rape and pillage regular players over and over again.
    Jay Caspian Kang, New York Times, 6 Jan. 2016
  • Suddenly, other buggies veer into view, intent on pillage and theft.
    Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 13 Sep. 2019
  • The Republican Party, including members who had denounced Trump during the 2016 primaries, followed him zombie-like on his pillage-and-burn mission.
    Mark Lilla, The New York Review of Books, 5 Nov. 2020
  • There is no question about the general philosophy that underlay this great act of public pillage and economic rapine.
    Charles P. Pierce, Esquire, 13 Mar. 2013
  • Rebel groups, some supported by Rwanda and Uganda, pillage villages, steal livestock, murder residents and rape women.
    Ruth MacLean, New York Times, 31 Jan. 2023
  • Rebel groups, some supported by Rwanda and Uganda, pillage villages, steal livestock, murder residents, and rape women.
    Jason Horowitz, BostonGlobe.com, 31 Jan. 2023
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pillage

2 of 2 verb
  • The town was pillaged and burned.
  • The enemy pillaged the town.
  • Or showed up as a band of pirates, here to pillage and plunder.
    John Canzano, oregonlive, 31 Oct. 2021
  • Their crops had been scorched, their villages had been pillaged.
    New York Times, 22 June 2018
  • People were running through the street, pillaging the stores along 63rd Street.
    Chicago Tribune, 9 Apr. 2018
  • The Empress controls the universe, and pillages the past for technologies to keep the universe safe from an alien species known as The Bleed.
    Andrew Liptak, The Verge, 15 June 2019
  • Imagineer Kathy Mangum, in the parks blog post, explains that Redd had pillaged the town’s rum supply.
    Dewayne Bevil, OrlandoSentinel.com, 19 Mar. 2018
  • Its funds could be sold off, then the investments pillaged off on the secondary market.
    Jessica Mathews, Fortune, 20 Mar. 2023
  • Yes, the Beatles wanted to hold your hand, but the Stones wanted to pillage your village, make off with its women, and salt the earth on the way out of town.
    Chris Nashawaty, EW.com, 24 Aug. 2021
  • In 2021, gang members invaded the temple, pillaged its artifacts and burned it to the ground.
    Amanda Coletta, Washington Post, 3 June 2023
  • And their ship does look suspiciously like the one Ariel pillaged—er, explored—in The Little Mermaid.
    Kara Wahlgren, Seventeen, 1 May 2017
  • And their ship does look suspiciously like the one Ariel pillaged — er, explored — in The Little Mermaid.
    Stacey Grant, Seventeen, 16 Apr. 2019
  • Many accuse the governing elite of pillaging the oil-rich country’s wealth while many Iraqis live in poverty.
    Saphora Smith, NBC News, 6 Nov. 2019
  • Defense pillaged by 34-year-old Frank Gore and the legendary Brissett-to-Doyle connection.
    Paul Daugherty, Cincinnati.com, 30 Oct. 2017
  • In one night the neighborhood was pillaged and set ablaze, its people massacred.
    Nehemiah D. Frank, Time, 18 Dec. 2019
  • By the spring of 2012, Pokora and Wheeler were focused on pillaging the network of Zombie Studios.
    Brendan I. Koerner, WIRED, 17 Apr. 2018
  • The pace is so speedy that deer must pillage minerals from other parts of their skeleton, only to cast their antlers away and sprout a new pair when the seasons turn once more.
    Katherine J. Wu, The Atlantic, 2 Aug. 2022
  • In other words, Wakanda was not raped and pillaged by Europeans.
    Elizabeth Wellington, Philly.com, 16 Feb. 2018
  • After leaving the Spanish colony of Puerto Rico, de León and his crew sailed north searching for new lands to plunder and pillage.
    Kat Eschner, Smithsonian, 2 May 2017
  • Never mind the centuries of Viking sacking and pillaging around Europe.
    Joshua Robinson, WSJ, 15 June 2018
  • The posts vow to pillage through suburbs threatening to rape and murder residents.
    Mica Soellner, Washington Examiner, 5 June 2020
  • Today, Rome’s Temple of Venus and Rome lies split in half, most of its columns gone, ravaged by centuries of fire, earthquakes and pillaging.
    Emily Matchar, Smithsonian, 22 Feb. 2017
  • Over the past half decade, the Emotet malware has emerged as a top Internet threat that pillages people’s bank accounts and installs other types of malware.
    Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 11 Feb. 2020
  • From ants that pillage your pantry to banana-loving fruit flies or fleas that piggyback on your pets, the battle against bugs is ongoing.
    Natalie Schumann, Country Living, 22 June 2020
  • This should never be an excuse to rape and pillage our environment.
    Phillip Molnar, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Nov. 2021
  • Grabbing runway trends at the likes of H&M and Zara wasn't an option until the early aughts–leaving those who wanted to snag fresh looks each season to pillage the shelves, racks and bins of the best second-hand shops.
    Carrie Goldberg, Harper's BAZAAR, 19 Jan. 2018
  • But the idea that every Muslim is in fact a sleeper waiting to pillage and pollute the Christian West gets a sympathetic hearing in the highest office in the land.
    Omer Aziz, New Republic, 22 Dec. 2017
  • For some, pillaging the homes of Black people was accompanied by dancing and laughter, with White women and children joining in the blood-sport.
    Suzette Malveaux, Washington Post, 19 June 2023
  • Jedi trapped behind enemy lines, including Avar Kriss, must fight to help the worlds being pillaged by the Nihil while staying one step ahead of the marauders and their Nameless terrors.
    EW.com, 2 Nov. 2023
  • He was accused of pillaging his late father's will and selling his art, rugs, jewelry and car, according to court records, which detailed how Brian dragged out the trial for nearly five years.
    Chris Eberhart, Fox News, 1 Jan. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pillage.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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