Definition of "despoil" [de•spoil]

• To sack; plunder. (verb-transitive)
• To deprive of something valuable by force; rob: a region despoiled of its scenic beauty by unchecked development. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Allow no man, under any pretense, to despoil you of your virtue."
• "For good measure and in keeping with his employer's philosophy, Watt permitted commercial interests to exploit and despoil previously off-limits publicly owned wilderness."
• "In addressing these and countless projects like them up and down the state, Californians have relied on CEQA for over 40 years to protect their communities and our natural resources from environmentally uninformed government decisions -- decisions that needlessly pollute our air, contaminate our water, endanger our children's health, despoil our wild lands, and undermine the quality of our lives."