Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of despoiling or plundering.
  • noun Seizure of neutral vessels at sea by a belligerent power in time of war.
  • noun Law Unauthorized alteration or destruction of a legal document, such as a contract or will.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of pillaging, plundering, or spoiling; robbery; plunder.
  • noun The act or practice of plundering in time of war, especially of plundering neutrals at sea under authority.
  • noun Eccles., the act of an incumbent in unlawfully taking the fruits of a benefice under a pretended title.
  • noun In law, intentional destruction of or tampering with (a document) in such way as to impair evidentiary effect.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of plundering; robbery; deprivation; despoliation.
  • noun Robbery or plunder in war; especially, the authorized act or practice of plundering neutrals at sea.
  • noun The act of an incumbent in taking the fruits of his benefice without right, but under a pretended title.
  • noun A process for possession of a church in a spiritual court.
  • noun (Law) Injury done to a document.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of plundering or spoiling; robbery; deprivation; despoliation.
  • noun Robbery or plunder in times of war; especially, the authorized act or practice of plundering neutrals at sea.
  • noun law The intentional destruction of or tampering with (a document) in such way as to impair evidentiary effect.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (law) the intentional destruction of a document or an alteration of it that destroys its value as evidence
  • noun the act of stripping and taking by force

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English spoliacioun, from Anglo-Norman, from Latin spoliātiō, spoliātiōn-, from spoliātus, past participle of spoliāre, to despoil; see spoil.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin spoliatio

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Examples

  • Striking a pleading for negligent spoliation is a drastic sanction that is appropriate only where the missing evidence deprive [s] the moving party of the ability to establish his or her defense or case.

    Fourth Department 2006

  • Let us, then, endeavor to indicate that beneficent force which tends progressively to overcome the maleficent force to which we have given the name spoliation, and the existence of which is only too well explained by reason and proved by experience.

    Sophisms of the Protectionists Fr��d��ric Bastiat 1825

  • Poor Don Juan found himself thus unexpectedly between two horns of a dilemma, the result in either case being the same -- that is, the spoliation of the little _pecadillo_ he had put away against old age.

    Wood Rangers The Trappers of Sonora Mayne Reid 1850

  • The manner in which this kind of spoliation is sometimes effected may be gathered from a narrative which we received from the lips of one of the few learned and estimable men whom the system of electing judges by the people has left upon the bench in the City of New York.

    The Secrets of the Great City James Dabney McCabe 1862

  • This kind of spoliation, thus reduced to a system, becomes then the most ridiculous of mystifications for every one, and the definite result is that each one believes that he gains more from a general market impoverished by all.

    Sophisms of the Protectionists Fr��d��ric Bastiat 1825

  • This kind of spoliation, and popular enlightenment, are always in an inverse ratio to one another, for it is in the nature of abuses to go as far as possible.

    Sophisms of the Protectionists Fr��d��ric Bastiat 1825

  • This kind of spoliation is called privilege or monopoly.

    Sophisms of the Protectionists Fr��d��ric Bastiat 1825

  • People who fear lawsuits or have something to hide tamper with evidence [Fitzgerald calls it "spoliation"] in ways that may seem clever -- overwriting files, reinstalling the operating system, loading a bunch of other data on discs and drives and them deleting them -- but are easily uncovered during an investigation.

    CSO Bill Brenner 2010

  • People who fear lawsuits or have something to hide tamper with evidence [Fitzgerald calls it "spoliation"] in ways that may seem clever -- overwriting files, reinstalling the operating system, loading a bunch of other data on discs and drives and them deleting them -- but are easily uncovered during an investigation.

    CSO Bill Brenner 2010

  • People who fear lawsuits or have something to hide tamper with evidence [Fitzgerald calls it "spoliation"] in ways that may seem clever -- overwriting files, reinstalling the operating system, loading a bunch of other data on discs and drives and them deleting them -- but are easily uncovered during an investigation.

    CSO Bill Brenner 2010

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