raiding

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of carrying out a raid, especially a sudden attack to seize goods or do damage.

   Viking raiding along the coast continued for several decades.

   Cattle raiding was a frequent source of conflict between the rival clans.

   Similarplundering, looting, marauding

   Note

   Usually an uncountable noun for raids as a practice, as in Viking raiding or cattle raiding. It can be counted when the episodes are. Inga Clendinnen's Aztecs: An Interpretation (1995) writes of "raidings and counter-raidings", a plural that turns the habit into a run of strikes and replies. Use the bare noun for the practice and the plural for distinct episodes.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of raid.

   The wolves spent the night raiding the unguarded henhouse.

   Rebels were raiding government outposts across the province.

   Note

   The -ing form does double duty. In "rebels were raiding the outposts" it builds the progressive with be, and in "raiding the outposts was risky" it heads a gerund phrase. Either way it keeps the verb's transitive grip and takes a direct object. That holds for the milder uses too: luring people away from another, or helping oneself from a store. Without an object it has usually become the noun for the activity.

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