▪ I. pillage, n.
(ˈpɪlɪdʒ)
Forms: 4–5 pilage, 5 pyl-, pel-, peilage (Sc.), 5–6 pyllage, 6 pielage, pilladge, 5– pillage.
[a. F. pillage (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), f. piller to plunder (pill v.1).]
1. The action of plundering or taking as spoil; spoliation, plunder: chiefly that practised in war; but also in extended sense, extensive or wholesale robbery or extortion. Also fig.
| 1390 Gower Conf. III. 153 Thilke folk, that were unsauhte Toward here king for his pilage. 1494 Fabyan Chron. v. lxxxvii. 64 [He] shall sette his mynde all to Pyllage and Rauyne. 1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 48 They desyre to be deliuered from the pillage..of the Bishoppe of Rome. 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 278 With such furious outrage..pilladge & polladge. 1639 S. Du Verger tr. Camus' Admir. Events 87 Exposing his reputation to the pillage of every mans tongue. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxxvi. (1869) II. 313 The pillage lasted fourteen days and nights. 1798 Ferriar Illustr. Sterne ii. 34 Beroalde has furnished subjects of pillage to a great number of authors. 1800 Colquhoun Comm. Thames Introd. 27 Pecuniary losses suffered by pillage and embezzlements. 1838 Murray's Hand-bk. N. Germ. 176 He gave it up to pillage for three days, and then set fire to it. 1844 H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 190 The object of the incursion being pillage, not fighting. |
† 2. Goods forcibly taken from another,
esp. from an enemy in war; booty, spoil, plunder.
Obs.| a 1400 Prymer (1891) 102 (Ps. cxix. 162) He þat fyndeth manye pilages. 1456 Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 121 All suld be at his will—prisonaris and pillagis, to part at his will. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vi. cxlvii. 133 He commandyd all the pyllage to be brought to one place. 1596 Spenser F.Q. v. ix. 4 That robbed all the countrie there about, And brought the pillage home, whence none could get it out. 1623–33 Fletcher & Shirley Night-Walker i. ii, I know this wedding Will yield me lusty pillage. 1750 Beawes Lex Mercat. (1752) 7 Nations greedy of blood and pillage. |
† 3. Some kind of impost or tax;
cf. peage,
pedage,
pickage.
Obs.| 1513 Bradshaw St. Werburge ii. 1782 All theyr tenauntes and seruauntes haue fre passage Within all chesshire with⁓out tolle and pillage. 1591 Canterbury Cath. MS., All the other profits..of all the Pillage, Stallage, Toll and other advantages belonging unto the said Dean and Chapter within the said market and fair. |
▪ II. pillage, v. (
ˈpɪlɪdʒ)
[f. pillage n.] 1. trans. To rob, plunder, sack (a person, place, etc.):
esp. as practised in war; to rifle.
| c 1592 Marlowe Jew of Malta v. iv, To feast my train Within a town of war so lately pillaged, Will be too costly, and too troublesome. 1634 Massinger Very Woman v. v, We were boarded, pillaged to the skin, and after Twice sold for slaves. 1642 Fuller Holy & Prof. St. ii. xxi. 136 He pillaged many Spanish towns, and took rich prizes. 1765 Goldsm. Ess. Pref., Our modern compilers..think it their undoubted right to pillage the dead. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. (Walter Scott Libr.) 292 They pillaged the crown of its ornaments, the churches of their plate, and the people of their personal decorations. 1874 Green Short Hist. iii. §5. 140 His armed retainers pillaged the markets. |
2. To take possession of or carry off as booty; to make a spoil of; to appropriate wrongfully.
| 1600 Hakluyt Voy. III. 196, I..tooke away from our men whatsoeuer they had pillaged, and gaue it..to the owners. 1670 W. Simpson Hydrol. Ess. 11 Those four wayes of imbibitions..are pillag'd out of Dr. French his book. 1789 Jefferson Writ. (1859) III. 98 Hoping to pillage something in the wreck of their country. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xvii. IV. 55 Every thing that was given to others seemed to him to be pillaged from himself. |
3. absol. or intr. To take booty; to plunder; to rob with open violence.
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. (Grosart) IV. 140 Eyther to hang at Tyborne, or pillage and reprizall where he may. 1811 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. VIII. 7, I will not allow the soldiers to pillage. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 417 They were suffered to pillage wherever they went. |
Hence
ˈpillaged ppl. a.,
ˈpillaging vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also
ˈpillageable a., that may be pillaged;
pillaˈgee [see
-ee], one who is pillaged.
| 1895 Saintsbury Corrected Impress. xvii. 188 Authorities quotable and *pillageable. |
| 1711 Steele Spect. No. 152 ¶3 The Devastation of Countries, the Misery of Inhabitants, the Cries of the *Pillaged. 1800 Miscell. Tracts in Asiat. Ann. Reg. 150/2 A man who had come to his pillaged hut. |
| 1856 De Quincey in Titan Mag. July 93/2 He urged his friend by marrying to enrol himself as a *pillagee elect. |
| 1629 Wadsworth Pilgr. 8 For feare hee should loose the *pillaging of the other. 1870 Daily News 3 Sept. 5 The pillaging of provision waggons by MacMahon's own troops. |
| c 1670 Wood Life Apr. an. 1645, This is that captaine Bunce, who shot the *pillaging Scot cal'd major Jecamiah Abercromy. 1875 C. Gordon Let. 1 Nov. in More about G. (1894) 152 A pillaging horde of brigands. |