- spoil
- spoil n Spoil, plunder, booty, prize, loot, swag can mean something of value that is taken from another by force or craft.Spoil applies to the movable property of a defeated enemy, which by the custom of old-time warfare belongs to the victor and of which he strips a captured city or place{
fire the palace, the fort, and the keep—leave to the foeman no spoil at all— Kipling
}With changes in methods and customs of warfare spoil, and especially its plural spoils, tends to be applied not only to property or land taken over by conquering forces in actual warfare or demanded by them from tñe conquered as a condition of making peace but also to whatever by custom and often unethical custom belongs to a victor whether in warlike endeavor or more peaceful pursuits; thus, in political use spoils applies chiefly to appointive public offices and their emoluments which the successful party in an election regards as its peculiar property to be bestowed as its leaders wish. But spoil may also apply to something gained by skill or effort{the spoils of a conservative industrial life— Brooks
}or sometimes acquired as casually as if by looting{the car filled with country spoils
}{brought back all sorts of frivolous spoils from her trip
}Plunder implies open violence (as of marauders) and is a more inclusive term than spoil because not restricted to warfare; it consistently implies robbery, whether as incidental to war or as dissociated from it and is applicable to what has been seized not only by spoilers, pillagers, and sackers but by such ruffians as bandits, brigands, and highwaymen{often the pirates were glad to accept money instead of plunder, and ransom for the slaves— Forester
}{a useless compiler, who fills letters and sermons with the plunder of the ancients and Holy Writ— H. O. Taylor
}Booty, like plunder, is applicable to martial spoils as well as to what is seized by or as if by robbery or theft{birds like the berries. They gather them, fly to top branches where they can be on the lookout for danger, and eat their booty— Dorrance
}{a cat springing on an oriole and marching proudly off with her golden booty projecting . . . from her mouth— Brooks
}In international law booty is technically used in distinction from prize, booty referring to spoils taken on land, and prize, to spoils captured on the high seas or in the territorial waters of the enemy{finished, but never published, a Latin treatise on the right of seizing prizes at sea— Barr
}Loot may be used in place of plunder, booty, or spoils when a highly derogatory or condemnatory term is desired{drawn into the conflict by a hope of sharing in the loot of the Church— Belloc
}{they believed that the revolution which they had fought by brawling in the streets would bring them loot and good jobs— Shirer)The term is also applied specifically to the plunder of those who rob the dead or helpless victims of a catastrophe or who steal anything left of value in the ruins of buildings wholly or partly destroyed (as by fire, flood, earthquake, or violent storm){prowlers among the ruins in search of loot
}In more general use the term is applicable to gains felt as ill-gotten{corrupt officials enriched by the loot of years
}Swag is also often used in place of loot or plunder especially to imply a collection or sackful of valuables gathered by or as if by thieves{Asserted that the swag from . . . graft was kept hidden ... in a metal box buried in the backyard— F. L. Allen
}{certain the great swag of doubloons was there—if he could only find it— Dobie
}Analogous words: *theft, robbery, larceny, burglary: acquisitions, acquirements (see singular nouns at ACQUIREMENT)2 *indulge, pamper, humor, baby, mollycoddleAnalogous words: *injure, harm, hurt, damage: favor, accommodate, *oblige: *debase, deprave, vitiate, debauch3 *decay, decompose, rot, putrefy, disintegrate, crumble
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
