English▸ verb [with object] (chiefly in historical contexts) plunder and destroy (a captured town, building, or other place):
the fort was rebuilt in AD 158 and was sacked again in AD 197.
▸ noun the pillaging of a town or city:
the sack of Rome.
– ORIGIN mid 16th century : from French sac, in the phrase mettre à sac ‘put to sack’, on the model of Italian fare il sacco, mettere a sacco, which perhaps originally referred to filling a sack with plunder.