| 释义 |
▪ I. plunder, n.|ˈplʌndə(r)|
[f. plunder v.2 (Not from Ger. plunder trash, lumber, obs. Du. plunder household stuff (Plantin), to which however the American sense 3 may be immediately due.)]
1. a. The action of plundering or taking as spoil; spec. as practised in war or a hostile incursion; pillage, spoliation, depredation. Now rare or Obs.
1643Prynne Sov. Power Parlt. iv. 29, I abhorre all violence, plunder, rapine, and disorders in Souldiers. 1650R. Stapylton Strada's Low C. Warres v. 125 The Merchants, fearing an universall plunder, shut their doors, and barricadoed them. 1726Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 15/2 After the plunder and spoiling of the Temple. 1839Thirlwall Greece xlix. VI. 187 This was a signal for indiscriminate plunder. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 331 The English should..advance as far as possible into the heart of the kingdom, carefully abstaining from plunder.
b. transf. The acquisition of property by violent, questionable, or dishonest means; spoliation.
1672South Serm. (1727) V. vi. 243 Those Reforming Harpies, who, by Plunders and Sequestrations, had scraped together three or four Thousand a Year. 1841Cobden Let. 4 Mar. in Westm. Gaz. 4 June (1904) 13/1 It is a dishonour to the name and character of Englishmen to submit to such a system of aristocratic plunder as the Corn Law is now proved to the world to be. 1881Froude Short Stud. (1883) IV. ii. i. 180 The wretched novice was an object of general plunder till he had learnt how to take care of himself.
2. a. Goods taken from an enemy by force; spoil, booty, prey, loot.
1647Ward Simp. Cobler 59, I would not speake thus..for all the plunder your plunderers have pillaged. 1694tr. Milton's Lett. State 27 Apr. an. 1650, The most certain Fairs for the Sale of their Plunder. 1726–31Tindal tr. Rapin's Hist. Eng. (1743) II. xvii. 146 Being impatient to return with his plunder to England. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India III. 428 The instigator of the depredations..sharing in the plunder.
b. transf. Property acquired by illegal or questionable means; also (slang), profit, gain.
1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 224 They would not hear of transferring the whole plunder of the kingdom to the stock⁓holders in Paris. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 175 I'll get more for it in the cavaldry..there's better plunder there. (Plunder, I may explain, is a common word in the horse trade to express profit.) 1865Holland Plain T. v. 188 A set of men..actuated by no higher motive than a love of plunder and of place.
3. Personal belongings or household goods; luggage, baggage. U.S. local. Also fig. and in occas. wider use.
1805M. Lewis in Lewis & Clark Exped. (1904) II. 220, I dispatched Sergt. Ordway with 4 Canoes and 8 men to take up a load of baggage as far as Capt. Clark's camp and return for the remainder of our plunder. 1817J. K. Paulding Lett. fr. South I. 38 We accordingly set forth on horseback, carrying our plunder (as the Virginians call baggage) in a light Jersey wagon. 1822J. Flint Lett. Amer. 286 Are you pedling? Is it goods or plunder that you have got? Note, Plunder is a cant term used in the western country, signifying travelling baggage. 1827F. Cooper Prairie I. ii. 31 You seem to have but little plunder, stranger, for one who is so far abroad. 1873Lynch Law in Sucker State (Farmer), Two long dug-outs, loaded with plunder, stopped at the cabin... This was the family and property of Hank Harris. 1941E. P. O'Donnell Great Big Doorstep 119 Your father puts on more every time he tells that there story. The plunder that man's got in his head! The plunder! 1948E. N. Dick Dixie Frontier 113 Mules and a hardy tough breed of Indian and Spanish horse..were used to carry the money and plunder. 1962W. Stegner Wolf Willow (1963) iii. ii. 160 He gathers together his plunder and he hightails her off the mountain. 1972O. Frederickson Silence of North viii. 64 We didn't have much plunder, and with only two grown-ups, a baby, and a pair of sled dogs on board, it rode high.
4. Comb., as plunder-master; plunder-fed adj.
1646Querela Cantabrigiensis 13 They have constituted a decay'd Hatter, Plunder-master Generall. 1767A. Campbell Lexiph. 19 On a vicinary bench, sate a plunder-fed soldier.
▪ II. † ˈplunder, v.1 Obs.
[A variant of blunder v., to confuse, confound, distract: the phonetic change is unexplained.]
trans. To confuse, confound, distract, muddle. Hence † ˈplundered ppl. a.: cf. blundered; † ˈplundering vbl. n.
1601Dent Pathw. Heaven 255 Howsoeuer they might by wit and learning shuffle it ouer, and in a plundred sort, speake reason: yet had they no feeling of that which they said. 1611Cotgr., Academié,.. besotted, puzled, or plundered, with too much skill or studying. 1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. iii. 228 Our peace both of Church and Common-wealth hath beene a little plundered and perplexed. 1642Jer. Taylor Episc. xl. 282 But for all their plundering, and confounding, their bold pretences have made this discourse necessary.
▪ III. plunder, v.2|ˈplʌndə(r)|
[a. Ger. plündern (also † blündern), late MHG., MLG., LG. plünder(e)n, plünnern (early mod.Du. and Du. plunderen, also † plonderen, Kil.) to pillage, sack, lit. to rob of household effects, f. MG., MHG. blunder, plunder bed-clothes (14th c.), clothing, household stuff, whence obs. Du. plunder, plonder household stuff (Plantin, in Kil. ‘vetus, Germ.’); in mod.Ger. plunder lumber, trash. Cf. MLG., MDu. plunde, plunne, in LG. also plünde, plünne, household stuff, clothes, often depreciatory, ‘duds’, rags, Du. plunje clothes, baggage. (In Swiss dial. plündern is ‘to remove or ‘flit’ with one's household goods’ (Grimm).)
The word was much used in Germany during the Thirty Years' War, in reference to which it was current in England from c 1630; here, word and thing became familiar on the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642, being especially associated with the proceedings of the forces under Prince Rupert.]
1. trans. To rob (a place or person) of goods or valuables by forcible means, or as an enemy; esp. as done in war or a hostile incursion; to pillage, rifle, ransack, spoil; to rob systematically. Also fig.
1632Swedish Intelligencer ii. 179 The Swedish Dragoones.. plundered the Townes of Wurtbach and Waldsee, neere unto Weingarten. Ibid. 180 Both [Bishoprics] are plundered and disarmed, and the best Ordnance sent to Auspurg. 1642(Nov. 24) Relation of King's Army at Braintford in Exact Collection (1643) 761, The Kings Army upon Saturday the twelfth of November after they had possessed themselves of [Braintford], they plundered it without any respect of persons. 1643Prynne Sov. Power Parlt. iv. 28, 29, I think the Parliament never yet approved the plundering (or in plain English, robbing) of any man, by any of their forces; they having plundered no places taken by assault, for ought I hear; though the Kings forces on the contrary, have miserably plundered all the Kingdom almost. 1647May Hist. Parl. iii. i. 3 Many Townes and Villages he [Prince Rupert] plundered, which is to say robb'd, for at that time first was the word plunder used in England, being borne in Germany. 1684Scanderbeg Rediv. v. 119 Twelve Thousand Persons made Prisoners, and the Town first plundred and then Burnt. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 323 Searching about for gold in the brooks and small streams,..and that after they had as it were plundered them at the first discovery. 1769Junius Lett. xxxv. (1820) 161 The people of Ireland have been uniformly plundered and oppressed. 1838Thirlwall Greece IV. xxxiii. 308 The royal troops plundered the camp of all that fell in their way. 1840Penny Cycl. XVIII. 12/1 The church of S. Francesco was plundered of the ‘Descent from the Cross’,..by Paul V., and the picture is now in the Borghese Gallery. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 424 A crowd of negligent or ravenous functionaries..plundered, starved, and poisoned the armies and fleets of William. 1896A. Beardsley Let. 29 Oct. (1970) 193 How abominably she [sc. George Sand] has been plundered by everyone since. 1961H. Adams in Webster s.v., Shakespeare and his fellow-dramatists plundered the Church legends. 1964T. M. Andersson Probl. Icelandic Saga Origins v. 90 Eiriks saga rauða and Grettis saga combine to show that when Landnáma was used, it was plundered wholesale and not plucked for an occasional name.
2. trans. To take (goods, valuables, etc.) with illegal force, or as an enemy; to appropriate wrongfully, embezzle; to take by robbery, steal.
1645Featly Dippers Dipt (1646) 131 The graces of the Spirit, which cannot be plundered. 1651Ussher Lett. (1686) 543 Those..I can by no means find, and do much fear that they were plundred, among my other Books and Papers, by the rude Welch in Glamorganshire. a1774Goldsm. Hist. Greece II. 235 The inhabitants..were determined to plunder Darius's treasures. 1869F. W. Newman Misc. 151 If they feed themselves honestly, and neither steal men or plunder their goods. 1883J. W. Sherer At Home & in India 141 Wrecking a village.., unroofing the houses and plundering the sweetmeats and grain.
3. absol. or intr. To commit depredations.
1638Drummond of Hawthornden Irene Wks. (1711) 167 Impiety is no Zeal, Cruelty no Valour,..open and violent Oppression and Robberies, or your Plundering, no fair Stratagems. 1693Mem. Cnt. Teckely iv. 57 The Imperialists on their side plundered upon the Turks. 1845S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. III. 447 When the Hungarians..pushed on..westward, plundering and laying waste by the way. 1849James Woodman x, You will find it so to your cost,..if you attempt to plunder here.
Hence ˈplundered ppl. a., ˈplundering vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1638,1643[see 3, 1]. 1649Comm. Adv. Money (1888) II. 1127 Divers plundering officers and soldiers of the late King. 1656Earl of Monmouth tr. Boccalini's Advts. fr. Parnass. i. lxxxvii. (1674) 117 The ruines, plundrings, affronts, and..desolations which she had received. 1663Cowley Cutter Coleman St. v. i, I shall ha' some plunder'd Plate, I hope, to entertain my Friends with. 1693G. Stepney in Dryden's Juvenal viii. (1697) 201 The Plundred still have Arms. 1856Emerson Eng. Traits, Aristocr. Wks. (Bohn) II. 78 Henry VIII..gave him a large share of the plundered church lands. 1859R. F. Burton in Jrnl. Geog. Soc. XXIX. 116 A place of comparative plenty when the plundering Wahumba do not interfere. |