Whole countries . . . were devastated. --Macaulay.
Syn: To waste; ravage; desolate; destroy; demolish; plunder; pillage. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
devastate — I verb demolish, depopulate, depredate, desolate, despoil, destroy, gut, lever, overwhelm, pillage, plunder, raid, ransack, ravage, raze, ruin, sack, wreck II index damage, despoil, destroy (efface), ex … Law dictionary
devastate — (v.) 1630s, perhaps a back formation from DEVASTATION (Cf. devastation). Apparently not common until 19c.; earlier verb form devast is attested from 1530s, from M.Fr. devaster. Related: devastated … Etymology dictionary
devastate — waste, *ravage, sack, pillage, despoil, spoliate Analogous words: *destroy, demolish, raze: *ruin, wreck: plunder, loot, *rob, rifle … New Dictionary of Synonyms
devastate — [v] demolish, destroy depredate, desecrate, desolate, despoil, devour, do one in*, lay waste, level, pillage, plunder, raid, ravage, raze, ruin, sack, smash, spoil, spoliate, stamp out*, take apart, total*, trash*, waste, wipe off map*, wreck;… … New thesaurus
devastate — ► VERB 1) destroy or ruin. 2) overwhelm with severe shock or grief. DERIVATIVES devastation noun devastator noun. ORIGIN Latin devastare, from vastare lay waste … English terms dictionary
devastate — [dev′ə stāt΄] vt. devastated, devastating [< L devastatus, pp. of devastare, to lay waste < de , intens. + vastare, to make empty < vastus, empty: see VAST] 1. to lay waste; make desolate; ravage; destroy 2. to make helpless; overwhelm… … English World dictionary
devastate — verb Devastate is used with these nouns as the subject: ↑cyclone, ↑earthquake, ↑hurricane, ↑tornado, ↑typhoon Devastate is used with these nouns as the object: ↑country, ↑economy, ↑industry … Collocations dictionary
devastate */ — UK [ˈdevəˌsteɪt] / US verb [transitive, usually passive] Word forms devastate : present tense I/you/we/they devastate he/she/it devastates present participle devastating past tense devastated past participle devastated 1) to seriously damage or… … English dictionary
devastate — [17] Etymologically as well as semantically, devastate is related to ‘lay waste’. It comes from the past participle of Latin dēvāstāre, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dē and vāstāre ‘lay waste’. This was a derivative of vāstus… … The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins
devastate — [17] Etymologically as well as semantically, devastate is related to ‘lay waste’. It comes from the past participle of Latin dēvāstāre, a compound verb formed from the intensive prefix dē and vāstāre ‘lay waste’. This was a derivative of vāstus… … Word origins
