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rapine

UK/ˈɹæpaɪn/US/ˈɹæpaɪn/
nounC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

Rapine is the violent seizing of property in war. A campaign of rapine.

It is archaic and belongs to histories rather than to any modern report. The word is a doublet of ravine, which was once a violent rush of water.

George Cruikshank · Public domain

Definitions of rapine

  1. 1nounrapineThe violent seizing of property in war.C2

    “The chronicle describes a year of rapine and nothing else.”

rapine is a seizing.

Where it comes from

Latin rapina comes from rapere, to seize; it is a doublet of ravine.

  1. Latin

    rapīna

  2. Old French

    rapine

  3. Middle English

    rapyne

  4. English, today

    rapine

From Middle English rapyne, from Old French rapine, from Latin rapīna, from rapiō. a doublet of ravine.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

rapine in the wild

  • Twice imprisoned and accused of murder and rapine, his disputes with family and vassals drew intervention from both king and pope.

    Robert of Auvergne

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.