What's the difference between plunder and ransack?

Plunder


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To take the goods of by force, or without right; to pillage; to spoil; to sack; to strip; to rob; as, to plunder travelers.
  • (v. t.) To take by pillage; to appropriate forcibly; as, the enemy plundered all the goods they found.
  • (n.) The act of plundering or pillaging; robbery. See Syn. of Pillage.
  • (n.) That which is taken by open force from an enemy; pillage; spoil; booty; also, that which is taken by theft or fraud.
  • (n.) Personal property and effects; baggage or luggage.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The Serb teed up Steve Davis, who crossed low for Graziano Pellè to plunder his fifth league goal of the campaign.
  • (2) Scott's ambitious design for the hotel and station clearly plundered the architectural treasuries of medieval Europe.
  • (3) read one banner, against the woman whose family is reviled for taking tasty slices of state business and contracts, and plundering Tunisia's wealth.
  • (4) But as more end up empty-handed and black market prices soar, plundering is rising in Venezuela , an Opec nation that was already one of the world’s most violent countries.
  • (5) The French are no longer colonisers, or imperialists, or even plundering racists.
  • (6) The majority of these children come from Guatemala , Honduras and El Salvador – three of the many countries ravaged by civil strife, drug wars and economic turmoil precipitated by US political and military intervention over several decades, as well as free-trade regimes and the corporate plunder of Latin America's natural resources.
  • (7) Most newspapers were excoriating, for instance, about the failure of the City's self-regulating bodies to blow the whistle on Robert Maxwell's plunder of the Mirror pension fund .
  • (8) Kiir has accused government officials of plundering at least $4bn (£2.6bn) from state coffers over seven years.
  • (9) For every cinephile that delights in Quentin Tarantino's penchant for opulent dialogue and magpie film-historian's eye, there's another who sees the US director of Reservoir Dogs , Pulp Fiction and the Kill Bill movies as a garish charlatan who survives on a habit of plundering the past.
  • (10) It was like a bomb went off in the room.” Arrest the thieves and embezzlers who are plundering Iraq | Letters Read more Abadi has placed much of his political stock on his reform drive, which he sees as essential to holding the country together.
  • (11) Mila D Aguilar , 67, poet, Quezon City Facebook Twitter Pinterest Krip Yuson ‘Many Filipinos still bear the scars of his plundering’ He should definitely not have been buried in the LNMB.
  • (12) With billions of dollars worth of assets of Muammar Gaddafi frozen by the UN and member countries, and other legal moves to recover the wealth of deposed autocrats such as Tunisia's Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, the drive to seize billions plundered by corrupt leaders has never been higher.
  • (13) Yet Joe Ledley’s handball might have earned United a penalty of their own after the interval before Ibrahimovic plundered the winner the visitors’ dominance merited .
  • (14) Damien Duff was sharp and Robbie Keane looked in the mood to plunder.
  • (15) In the past few years they had seen Ben Ali and his family and friends become extremely rich by plundering the nation.
  • (16) City were ahead again before half-time, Santa Cruz dummying over Shaun Wright-Phillips' centre for Bellamy to plunder the goal he so richly deserved, but three is not enough to guarantee City victory these days, and Kenwyne Jones, on as substitute, headed in from four yards to get Wearside's barmy army crowing with glee.
  • (17) Field’s parliamentary investigation concluded that BHS had been systematically plundered.
  • (18) The National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden used inexpensive and widely available software to plunder the agency’s networks, it has been reported, raising further questions about why he was not detected.
  • (19) For my part – plundering singles by Artful Dodger, by Semisonic – I have a memory of actually looking over my shoulder.
  • (20) The question is, why haven't the moon's resources been thoroughly plundered by now?

Ransack


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To search thoroughly; to search every place or part of; as, to ransack a house.
  • (v. t.) To plunder; to pillage completely.
  • (v. t.) To violate; to ravish; to defiour.
  • (v. i.) To make a thorough search.
  • (n.) The act of ransacking, or state of being ransacked; pillage.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Some have been threatened and assaulted, while others’ homes have been ransacked, their families living in constant fear.
  • (2) Gangs of armed men ransacked and burned homes of government supporters and residents from tribes sympathetic to the government.
  • (3) The attackers entered the buildings, ransacked each and set them on fire, but did not penetrate the safe rooms.
  • (4) They’ve just ransacked the house, it’s horrible, it’s terrible,” said Melissa Mill.
  • (5) While his political allegiances led to the ransacking of his office in 1965, following the coup d'etat the year before that brought the military to power under General Castelo Branco, Niemeyer remained a well known and popular figure among ordinary Brazilians, to whom he was always "Oscar", and evidently adored, although younger generations of Brazilian architects have inevitably felt hidden in his shadow.
  • (6) These were forerunners of today's "conscious hip-hop" (not for nothing is Gamble and Huff's catalogue among the most ransacked by rappers for samples).
  • (7) That all I could hear – BANG – and I thought, for fuck’s sake, I had a headache, Tel.” One of the men then clambered through the tiny hole to jemmy open 73 of the 550 safe deposit boxes, which they ransacked.
  • (8) He systematically ransacked Aboriginal burial grounds across at least two states.
  • (9) Earlier in the evening, a number of demonstrators attacked a branch of Starbucks, smashing its front windows and ransacking it before shattering the facade of a clothes shop.
  • (10) A Hague meeting with either Rouhani or Zarif could clear the way to restoring full diplomatic ties, which have not existed since the British embassy in Tehran was ransacked by a mob in November 2011.
  • (11) Residents of Kurhama village in eastern Kashmir said soldiers arrived trucks and entered dozens of homes, beat men and women, ransacked property and broke into shops.
  • (12) It attacked as “false” reports that offices in city hall had been ransacked by police as part of their search for documents.
  • (13) "Now that all the Muslim shops have been looted, ransacked and destroyed, prices have increased substantially."
  • (14) Hospitals were looted and non-governmental organisation offices ransacked as the insurgents declared Gao the capital of Azawad, or northern Mali .
  • (15) This would include delivery in schools and colleges, of course, but should embrace provision provided, for example, through study circles, which were organised by the TUC in the 1980s; the University of the Third Age and the opportunities that organisation has provided for retired people; and opportunities that have been provided for older people who have no qualifications to gain them through organisations like the Ransackers Association .
  • (16) The gang ransacked 73 boxes at Hatton Garden Safe Deposit after using a diamond-tipped drill to bore a hole into the vault wall over Easter weekend last year.
  • (17) A BBC correspondent in the city, Rana Jawad, tweeted: "In past 48 hrs many – if not majority – of apartments of Hay el Zohour compound on airport road have been ransacked acc to witnesses."
  • (18) The same article was successfully relied on by lawyers acting for Earl Daren Rodney, who was jailed for ransacking a hairdresser’s during the 2011 London riots.
  • (19) Four suspects wearing helmets and black clothing ransacked display cases inside the Jumeirah Carlton Tower hotel shortly after midnight and fled on two high-powered motorbikes.
  • (20) "They will ransack the village, but will probably be stopped at the city gates.