raid
Americannoun
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a sudden assault or attack, as upon something to be seized or suppressed.
a police raid on a gambling ring.
- Synonyms:
- seizure
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Military. a sudden attack on the enemy, as by air or by a small land force.
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a vigorous, large-scale effort to lure away a competitor's employees, members, etc.
-
Finance. a concerted attempt of speculators to force stock prices down.
verb (used with object)
-
to make a raid on.
-
to steal from; loot.
a worry that the investment fund is being raided.
-
to entice away from another.
Large companies are raiding key personnel from smaller companies.
-
to indulge oneself by taking from, especially in order to eat.
raiding the cookie jar.
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
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to make a raid against (a person, thing, etc)
-
to sneak into (a place) in order to take something, steal, etc
raiding the larder
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
raidsimple
-
raidssimple
-
have raidedperfect
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has raidedperfect
-
am raidingprogressive
-
are raidingprogressive
-
is raidingprogressive
-
have been raidingperfect progressive
-
has been raidingperfect progressive
Past
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raidedsimple
-
had raidedperfect
-
was raidingprogressive
-
were raidingprogressive
-
had been raidingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of raid
1375–1425; Middle English (north and Scots ) ra ( i ) de, Old English rād expedition, literally, a riding; doublet of road
Explanation
A raid is a military attack, especially a quick surprise attack. The word comes from the military but has spread out — police might raid a shady nightclub to find bad guys, or a babysitter might raid the refrigerator. When an army launches a raid, you can say they raid, or attack abruptly. This verb can also be used to mean "search" or "enter unexpectedly," as when police officers raid a suspect's home or summer campers' raid a neighboring cabin. The military meaning is the oldest, and the word comes from the Scottish rade, "a riding" or "a journey," from the Old English rad, which is also the root of road.
Vocabulary lists containing raid
Chinese History - Introductory
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Indiana Jones Vocabulary
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Chinese History - Middle School and High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The indictment comes months after the Los Angeles Police Department carried out a raid of Coolkicks’ warehouse in Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The October raid led police to recover an estimated $500,000 worth of stolen Nike goods, according to authorities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
The raid came a day after it announced it would be shutting down in August, citing financial reasons and what it called an "elusive 'red line'" over what material is considered problematic.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Air raid alerts sounded in Bahrain, while Kuwait's army said its forces were intercepting "hostile aerial targets" on Monday.
From Barron's ● Jul. 13, 2026
The raid on the Russian People’s House was not the only anti-Red activity that took place on November 9, 1919.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
You have protested masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in your neighborhoods.
From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026
There have been two other raids on bookshops in Hong Kong in 2026.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Thousands more joined them, swept up in raids amid the ensuing war.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026
Immigration raids and wildfires dissuaded tourists from visiting, and even Canadian tourists who typically make up the largest number of foreign visitors to California dropped 21%.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
This made the ranch relatively safe from Border Patrol raids.
From "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child" by Francisco Jiménez
The sale marks the end of a turbulent chapter for the estate, which was thrust into the spotlight in March 2024 when Homeland Security agents raided the property as part of their investigation into Combs.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
That suffered a blow in 2011 when US forces raided a compound in Pakistan and found Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Officials did not name the businesses raided by police.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026
Law-enforcement officers raided Alinaghian’s home and found a few dozen air bags, then seized packages from the United Kingdom en route to him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
Another group raided a hardware store, bought a roll of tar paper, and contrived to make raincoats out of it.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
“They’re raiding the Smithsonian,” said Joe Stief, a Virginia-based investment firm associate who oversees Keep the Shuttle, a 4,000-member advocacy group opposed to the move.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
And Greece's Akylas had the most kaleidoscopic performance - sliding down a fireman's pole, raiding a bank vault and dancing with a Greek statue during his techno banger, Ferto.
From BBC ● May 17, 2026
It would merely be a different flavor of raiding the Treasury for personal gain.
From Slate ● May 16, 2026
“A 29% rate of pre-retirees raiding 10% or more of savings for a family emergency means people are going into retirement short,” Judge said.
From MarketWatch ● May 14, 2026
We waited until dusk, after the dump caretaker left, before raiding for treasures because we had no money to buy them.
From "The Circuit: Stories from the Life of a Migrant Child" by Francisco Jiménez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.