spoliation
(archaic) Forcibly seizing property; pillage, plunder; also, the state of having property forcibly seized; an instance of this; a robbery, a seizure.
How many people out of the suit, Jarndyce and Jarndyce has stretched forth its unwholesome hand to spoil and corrupt, would be a very wide question. […] In trickery, evasion, procrastination, spoliation, botheration, under false pretences of all sorts, there are influences that can never come to good.
(by extension) The action of destroying or ruining; destruction, ruin.
Marks of violence were visible in every part; a cupboard had been forced open, and the contents of a chest of drawers were scattered about the room. The shop bore even more evident signs of spoliation—that reckless wastefulness which seems the constant companion of cruelty; but little of the grocery appeared to have been touched, excepting the sweet things.
(Christianity, ecclesiastical, chiefly historical) The action of an incumbent (holder of an ecclesiastical benefice) wrongfully depriving another of the emoluments of a benefice.
Spoliation is an injury done by one clerk or incumbent to another, in taking the fruits of his benefice without any right thereunto, but under a pretended title. It is remedied by a decree to account for the profits so taken. […] [A] patron first presents A to a benefice, who is instituted and inducted thereto; and then, upon pretence of a vacancy, the same patron presents B to the same living, and he also obtains institution and induction. Now if A disputes the fact of the vacancy, then that clerk who is kept out of the profits of the living, whichever it may be, may sue the other in the spiritual court for spoliation, or taking the profits of his benefice.
(Christianity, ecclesiastical, chiefly historical, law) A lawsuit brought or writ issued by an incumbent against another, claiming that the latter has wrongfully taken the emoluments of a benefice.
(law) The intentional destruction of, or tampering with, a document so as to impair its evidentiary value.
(international law) The systematic forcible seizure of property during a crisis or state of unrest such as that caused by war, now regarded as a crime; looting, pillage, plunder; an instance of this.
(nautical, historical) The government-sanctioned action or practice of plundering neutral ships at sea; an instance of this.