reave Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb steal goods; take as spoils
    pillage; strip; despoil; plunder; foray; rifle; loot; ransack.
    • During the earthquake people looted the stores that were deserted by their owners

WordNet

Reave transitive verb
Etymology
AS. reáfian, from reáf spoil, plunder, clothing, reófan to break (cf. bireófan to deprive of); akin to G. rauben to rob, Icel. raufa to rob, rj&umac;fa to break, violate, Goth. biráubon to despoil, L. rumpere to break; cf. Skr. lup to break. Cf. Bereave, Rob, v. t., Robe, Rove, v. t., Rupture.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Reaved Reft or Raft (obsolete ); present participle & verbal noun Reaving
Definitions
  1. To take away by violence or by stealth; to snatch away; to rob; to despoil; to bereave. Archaic. "To reave his life." Spenser.
    He golden apples raft of the dragon. Chaucer.
    By privy stratagem my life at home. Chapman.
    To reave the orphan of his patrimony. Shak.
    The heaven caught and reft him of his tongue. Tennyson.

Webster 1913