reave v : steal goods; take as spoils; "During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners" [syn: plunder, despoil, loot, strip, rifle, ransack, pillage, foray] [also: reft]

English

Alternative spellings

• reive

Pronunciation

• /ri:v/

Etymology 1

reafian

Verb

1. To plunder, pillage, rob.

   • 1985, Few of the chroniclers of Nero’s reign have been accurate when relating the situation that obtained between the Emperor and his mother from the time when, reft of her German and Pannonian guards, she lived in a more or less solitary rage on one estate or another. — Anthony Burgess, Kingdom of the Wicked

Derived terms

• border reivers

Etymology 2

Alteration of rive by confusion with the above.

Verb

1. To split, tear, break apart.