house-plunder

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhaʊsˌplʌndə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhaʊsˌplʌndɚ/, /-ˌplən-/
• Hyphenation: house-plund‧er

house-plunder (uncountable)

1. Alternative form of house plunder
   • 1914, John Preston Arthur, “Manners and Customs”, in Western North Carolina: A History (from 1730 to 1913), Asheville, N.C.: The Edward Buncombe Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution; Raleigh, N.C.: Edwards & Broughton Printing Company, →OCLC, page 253:

     Each girl got a cow, a mare and sufficient "house[-]plunder" with which to set up house-keeping, but they rarely got any land, the husband being expected to provide that.

   • 1917, Louise S[aunders] Murdoch, “In Memoriam”, in Almetta of Gabriel’s Run, New York, N.Y.: The Meridian Press, →OCLC, page 101:

     Why, she married that oldest boy of little Ike's, a moughty well-turned, civil, workin' boy, an' his folks give 'im a heifer an' some house[-]plunder, an' her mam give 'em a bed an' a nice lot uv quilts, an' they've set up fer theirselves.

   • 1938 December, Richard Chase, Kay Chase, quoting R. M. Ward, “Jack and the Bean Tree (The Jack Tales No. 4)”, in Alton C. Morris, editor, Southern Folklore Quarterly, volume II, number 4, Gainesville, Fla.: The University of Florida in cooperation with the Southeastern Folklore Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 202:

     So Jack got all them things from the giant and gathered up all the house-plunder that wasn't tore up when the house hit the ground.

   • 1948, “The Old Sow and the Three Shoats”, in Richard Chase, editor, Grandfather Tales: American-English Folk Tales […], Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, published 1976, →ISBN, page 83:

     Fin'lly the old sow she fixed Jack three days' rations and a little house-plunder on a drag-sled and he headed for the wilderness.

   • 1986, Richard Young, Judy Dockrey Young, compilers, “The Hoop Snake”, in Ozark Tall Tales: Collected from the Oral Tradition, Little Rock, Ark.: August House, published 1989, →ISBN, page 84:

     Knowing how much Grandma wanted a lumber house, Grandpa cut down the buck-tree and ripsawed it into boards. He put up a fine board house, and they moved all their house-plunder in.

   • 1970, Herbert Maynor Sutherland, “Bad ’Lige Shoots a Ghost”, in Tall Tales of the Devil’s Apron, Johnson City, Tenn.: The Overmountain Press, published 1988, →ISBN, page 206:

     The last feller that lived thar tuck off so fast he left his beds an' house[-]plunder thar.

   • 1975, Janice Holt Giles, “Wilderness Road”, in Wellspring, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, pages 76–77:

     She wished, though, there had been a way to take more of the house-plunder. […] Still and all, it was a wrench to leave her beds and her tables, her chairs, and the dish dresser Daniel had made for her.

   • 1997, Rose O’Neill, chapter 2, in Miriam Formanek-Brunell, editor, The Story of Rose O’Neill: An Autobiography, Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press, →ISBN, page 69:

     You'd never calkelate he was mean-turned from his looks. But he grab-snatched everything the old man had. Got away with his house[-]plunder even.

In many works the word appears hyphenated due to a line break, so it is difficult to tell if the word is usually spelled with a hyphen or is unhyphenated as houseplunder.