subs. (common).—Plunder. See quots. 1798 and 1840.
1788. J. STOCKDALE, The Indian Vocabulary [YULE], s.v. LOOT, plunder, pillage.
1791. Gentlemen’s Magazine, p. 78, col. 2. They had orders to burn and plunder several large villages … this former part of their instructions the LOOTIES said they had followed.
1798. WELLINGTON, Supplementary Despatches and Memoranda, i. 60 (1858). Nine parts in ten of the Native armies are LOOTIES or bad cavalry.
1840. J. B. FRASER, Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia, &c., ii. Letter xiv. p. 283. The LOOTIES—that is, the rogues and vagabonds of the place.
1842. C. CAMPBELL, in SHADWELL’S Life of Lord Clyde, i. 120. I believe I have already told you that I did not take any LOOT—the Indian word for plunder.
1875. G. T. CHESNEY, The Dilemma, xxxvi. It was the Colonel Sahib who carried off the LOOT.
1903. KIPLING, Barrack-Room Ballads, ‘LOOT’ [Title].
