Spoliation

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Spoliation \Spo`li*a"tion\ (sp[=o]"l[i^]*[=a]"sh[u^]n), n. [L.
     spoliatio: cf. F. spoliation. See {Spoil}, v. t.]
     1. The act of plundering; robbery; deprivation; despoliation.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Legal spoliation, which will impoverish one part of


              the community in order to corrupt the remainder.
                                                    --Sir G. C.
                                                    Lewis.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Robbery or plunder in war; especially, the authorized act
        or practice of plundering neutrals at sea.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Eccl. Law)
        (a) The act of an incumbent in taking the fruits of his
            benefice without right, but under a pretended title.
            --Blackstone.
        (b) A process for possession of a church in a spiritual
            court.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Law) Injury done to a document.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  spoliation
       n 1: (law) the intentional destruction of a document or an
            alteration of it that destroys its value as evidence
       2: the act of stripping and taking by force [syn: {spoil}, {spoilation},
           {despoilation}, {despoilment}, {despoliation}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  85 Moby Thesaurus words for "spoliation":
     banditry, bereavement, bloodbath, blue ruin, breakup, brigandage,
     brigandism, carnage, consumption, cost, damage, damnation,
     dead loss, debit, decimation, denial, denudation, depredation,
     deprivation, desolation, despoiling, despoilment, despoliation,
     destruction, detriment, devastation, direption, disintegration,
     disorganization, dispossession, disruption, dissolution,
     divestment, expense, foraging, foray, forfeit, forfeiture,
     freebooting, havoc, hecatomb, holocaust, injury, looting, loser,
     losing, losing streak, loss, marauding, perdition, pillage,
     pillaging, plunder, plundering, privation, raid, raiding,
     ransacking, rape, rapine, ravage, ravagement, ravaging, ravishment,
     razzia, reiving, rifling, robbery, ruin, ruination, sack, sacking,
     sacrifice, shambles, slaughter, spoiling, stripping, taking away,
     total loss, undoing, vandalism, waste, wrack, wrack and ruin,
     wreck
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SPOLIATION, Eng. eccl. law. The name of a suit sued out in the spiritual 
  court to recover for the fruits of the church, or for the church itself. F. 
  N. B. 85. 
       2. It is also a waste of church property by an ecclesiastical person. 3 
  Bl. Com. 90. 
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SPOLIATION, torts. Destruction of a thing by the act of a stranger; as, the 
  erasure or alteration of a writing by the act of a stranger, is called 
  spoliation. This has not the effect to destroy its character or legal 
  effect. 1 Greenl. Ev. Sec. 566. 2. By spoliation is also understood the 
  total destruction of a thing; as, the spoliation of papers, by the captured 
  party, is generally regarded as proof of. guilt, but in America it is open 
  to explanation, except in certain cases where there is a vehement 
  presumption of bad faith. 2 Wheat. 227, 241; 1 Dods. Adm. 480, 486. See 
  Alteration.