maraud
/məˈɹɔːd/ verb
Forms marauds marauding marauded
- verb (intransitive) To move about in roving fashion looking for plunder; to loiter. “a marauding band”
- verb (intransitive) To go about aggressively or in a predatory manner.
- verb (transitive) To raid and pillage.
Synonyms
Etymology
From French marauder, derivative of maraud (“rogue, vagabond”), from Middle French maraud (“rascal”), from Old French *marault (“beggar, vagabond”), from marir, marrir (“to trouble, stray, lose ones way, be lost”), from Frankish *marʀijan (“to neglect, hinder”), from Proto-Germanic *marzijaną (“to neglect, hinder, spoil”), from Proto-Indo-European *mers- (“to trouble, confuse, ignore, forget”), + Old French suffix -ault, -aud. Cognate with Old High German marrjan, marren (“to obstruct, hinder”), Old Saxon merrian (“to hinder, waste”), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (marzjan, “to offend”). Related to mar.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To rove in quest of plunder; to make an excursion for booty; to plunder. "Marauding hosts." Milman.
- noun An excursion for plundering.
Etymology [F. marauder, fr. maraud vagabond, OF. marault; of uncertain origin, perh. for malault, fr. (assumed) LL. malaldus; fr. L. malus bad, ill + a suffix of German origin (cf. Herald). Cf. Malice.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “maraud”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details