means A sudden surprise attack or forced entry on a place, whether to plunder, arrest, or seize control of it.

from A delightful linguistic quirk: 'raid' and 'road' are the same word. Both descend from Old English 'rad,' meaning a riding or journey on horseback — the act of riding being inseparable from the act of charging in to plunder. The word faded into a Scottish and northern dialect form, surviving up near the border country where mounted reivers made cross-border raiding a way of life. It was revived into wider English in the 19th century, partly through the popularity of Sir Walter Scott's writing, carrying its old saddle-and-spear flavor with it.