rapine

4 definitions found

rapine - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Rapine \Rap"ine\, v. t.
     To plunder. --Sir G. Buck.
     [1913 Webster]

  Rapine \Rap"ine\ (r[a^]p"[i^]n), n. [F. rapine; cf. Pr. & It.
     rapina; all fr. L. rapina, fr. rapere to seize and carry off
     by force. See Rapid, and cf. Raven rapine.]
     1. The act of plundering; the seizing and carrying away of
        things by force; spoliation; pillage; plunder.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Men who were impelled to war quite as much by the
              desire of rapine as by the desire of glory.
                                                    --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Ravishment; rape. [Obs.] --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]

rapine - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  rapine
      n 1: the act of despoiling a country in warfare [syn: rape,
           rapine]

rapine - Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) :

  RAPINE, crim. law. This is almost indistinguishable from robbery. (q.v.) It 
  is the felonious taking of another man's personal property, openly and by 
  violence, against his will. The civilians define rapine to be the taking 
  with violence, the movable property of another, with the fraudulent intent 
  to appropriate it to one's own USC. Lec. El. Dr. Rom. Sec. 1071.