loot

CEFRB2

/luːt/

noun · verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    Valuable things stolen during a violent event or crime.

  2. 02

    verb

    To steal valuable things from a place.

Examples

  • The thief outwitted the police and got away with his loot.

  • The thieves divvied up the stolen loot among themselves.

At a glance

Sits at B2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /lut/
  • /ɫʉːt/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Any valuable thing received for free, especially Christmas presents.

  2. Synonym of sack, the plundering of a city, particularly during war.

  3. Synonym of booty, goods seized from an enemy by violence, particularly (historical) during the sacking of a town in war or (video games) after successful combat.

More examples

In context

  • He consented to the loot of the city by the men under his command.

  • The loot from the sack of Constantinople included the head of John the Baptist.

  • India went from being a world-famous exporter of finished cloth into an importer, went from having 27% of world trade to less than 2%. Meanwhile, colonialists like Sir Robert Clive bought their rotten boroughs in England on the proceeds of their loot in India...

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The thieves loaded the expensive blank into the back of their waiting getaway van.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

Borrowed from Hindi लूट (lūṭ, “booty”), either from Sanskrit लोप्त्र (loptra, “booty, stolen property”) or लुण्ट् (luṇṭ, “to rob, plunder”). The figurative meaning developed in American English in the 1920s, resulting in a generalized meaning by the 1950s.