To pillage means to steal goods violently, especially during war or by invading forces. When an army pillages a town, soldiers take whatever they want: food, valuables, supplies, anything useful or precious. Vikings who raided coastal villages were pillaging them. Throughout history, conquering armies often pillaged defeated cities, carrying away treasures and leaving inhabitants with little or nothing.

The word suggests more than simple theft. Pillaging involves force and destruction, and it often happens when there's no one to stop it. A thief might sneak into one house, but an invading force pillages an entire region. Pirates pillaged merchant ships they captured. During the Thirty Years' War in Europe, armies from different countries pillaged towns across Germany, devastating the countryside.

You might hear someone say their younger sibling pillaged the cookie jar, using the word playfully to describe eating everything in sight. But the word's real meaning is serious: pillage describes the terrible reality of what happens to ordinary people's homes and possessions during warfare, when soldiers take what they want by force and leave communities struggling to survive.