a usu hostile incursion made in order to seize somebody or something
a cattle raid
a surprise attack by a small force
a sudden invasion by the police, e.g. in search of criminals or stolen goods
on the Stock Exchange, an attempt to bring down share prices by concerted selling
an act of robbery
a bank raid
Middle English (Scottish) variant of road in the early senses ‘journey on horseback, mounted foray’. Both raid and road (in these senses) had become obsolete by the end of the 17th cent.; raid was revived in the early 19th cent. by the Scottish novelist Sir Walter Scott