despoil

There is an economic aspect to the story in that greed is driving developers to despoil these areas because they see profit.

From Salon ● Mar. 2, 2023

The slightest mistake would despoil the land and the waters, and America has seen plenty of such mistakes over the years.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2023

That measure is opposed by members of the local Mura tribe, who say mining would despoil the natural habitat upon which they depend.

From Reuters ● Mar. 23, 2022

Using “ANWR” denies the refuge’s deeply wild character and serves those who would despoil this “last great wilderness.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 7, 2022

The skull seemed to grimace in defiance, daring a stranger to despoil the royal treasures.

From "The Book of Three" by Lloyd Alexander

Unfortunately, your visit to Glacier NP was an example of exactly the kind of behavior that despoils and degrades our parks and wildernesses.

From New York Times ● Sep. 20, 2016

There are many benefits of not selling water in disposable bottles in national parks, including reducing trash at parks, carbon emissions and the litter that despoils our parks, landscape and waterways.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 24, 2015

Roger is jealous when Jane flirts with Manishewitz Jr.—“I thought you liked the crabs rangoon here!”—and despoils her new, Roger-free apartment accordingly.

From Slate ● May 14, 2012

History's biggest oil spill despoils the French shoreline Like a grotesque, hook-shaped inkblot, the oil spread menacingly across the water.

From Time Magazine Archive

"He sends flowers to her as he does to me—only he sends me a bouquet, while for her he despoils the gardens of Sairmeuse."

From The Honor of the Name by Émile Gaboriau

Metaphors may have no place at a concentration camp, but it’s hard to look at this beautiful enclosed space and not see it, perversely, as the most despoiled of Edens.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 14, 2023

Morton, Douglas even went as far as arguing for standing for organizations to sue on behalf of nature when it was “about to be despoiled, defaced, or invaded by roads and bulldozers.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 26, 2023

Too much of Seattle has been despoiled by the greed and power of developers.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 18, 2022

The natural environment with which Native Americans had established a harmonious and symbiotic relationship, was similarly despoiled by the twin logic of expropriation and colonization that spread under the logic of manifest destiny.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 10, 2021

Thy present is this estate, of which thou hast been despoiled.

From The Joy of Captain Ribot by Armando Palacio Vald?s

Plastic, along with other litter, is also despoiling the landscape and polluting our waterways.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 7, 2023

And my sister once used a sheet of carbon paper as Ken’s blanket, despoiling his face with permanent blue ink.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2023

I just wish I hadn’t let my fandom lead me into the fluorescent-lit land of plot despoiling.

From New York Times ● Dec. 10, 2022

A global explosion of disposable plastic, which is made from oil and gas, is increasing carbon emissions, despoiling the world's oceans, harming wildlife and contaminating the food chain.

From Reuters ● Feb. 18, 2022

“We are on the trail of a gang of international thieves who came to France for the purpose of despoiling our museums,” a police spokesman announced.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day