(~s, raping, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
If someone is ~d, they are forced to have sex, usually by violence or threats of violence.
A young woman was brutally ~d in her own home...
They’d held him down and ~d him.
VERB: be V-ed, V n
2.
Rape is the crime of forcing someone to have sex.
Almost ninety per cent of all ~s and violent assaults went unreported.
N-VAR
3.
The ~ of an area or of a country is the destruction or spoiling of it. (LITERARY)
As a result of the ~ of the forests, parts of the country are now short of water.
N-SING: the N of n
4.
see also date ~ , gang ~ , oilseed ~