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piller

to loot, to pillage

verb pee-YEH Rare
People & Society Crime

Also means

to plagiarize

Usage Note

Piller applies both to physical looting of buildings or cities and to intellectual theft — copying another's work without attribution. The noun pillard means 'looter', and pillage (looting) is common in news contexts. The figurative sense 'to plagiarize' is used in academic and journalistic registers.

Examples

"Des soldats ont pillé le village après la bataille."

Natural Translation

Soldiers looted the village after the battle.

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