looting

Plural: lootings

Noun

• plundering during riots or in wartime
• The act of stealing during a crisis such as a war, riot or natural disaster, when law enforcement is ineffective or absent.

Verb

• take illegally; of intellectual property
• steal goods; take as spoils
• present participle and gerund of loot

Examples

• "During the looting, the mob stole everything they could and then set fire to the buildings."
• "While looting the stores the looters took the opportunity for revenge by destroying what they didn't steal."

Synonyms

despoil, foray, loot, pillage, plunder, ransack, reave, rifle, robbery, strip