Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To rove and raid in search of plunder.
  • intransitive verb To raid or pillage for spoils.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To rove in quest of plunder; make an excursion for booty; go about for robbery: used especially of the despoiling action of soldiers in time of war, or of organized bands of robbers or pirates.
  • noun Spoliation by marauders.

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

  • noun An excursion for plundering.
  • intransitive verb To rove in quest of plunder; to make an excursion for booty; to plunder.

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

  • verb intransitive To move about in roving fashion looking for plunder.
  • verb transitive To raid and pillage.
  • verb To act aggressively.

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

  • noun a sudden short attack
  • verb raid and rove in search of booty

Etymologies

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

[French marauder, from maraud, tomcat, vagabond.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1690, from French marauder, derivative of maraud ("rogue, vagabond"), from Middle French maraud ("rascal"), from Old French marault ("beggar, vagabond"), from marir, marrir ("to trouble, stray, lose ones way, be lost"), from Frankish *marrjan (“to neglect, hinder”), from Proto-Germanic *marzijanan (“to neglect, hinder, spoil”), from Proto-Indo-European *mers- (“to trouble, confuse, ignore, forget”), + Old French suffix -ault, -aud. Cognate with Old High German marrjan, marren ("to obstruct, hinder"), Old Saxon merrian ("to hinder, waste"), Gothic 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (marzjan, "to offend"). Related to mar.

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Examples

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  • I produced my Times which was stolen by a marauding nurse.

    - Peter Reading, C, 1984

    August 2, 2008