devastate

Meaning

1. To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.
2. To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
3. To break beyond recovery or repair so that the only options are abandonment or the clearing away of useless remains (if any) and starting over.
4. To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay

Synonyms

destroy

ravage

ruin

lay waste

waste

desolate

wreck

spoil

demolish

damage

sack

destruct

kill

🔪🩸👤

lay waste to

undo

scourge

trample down

annihilate

efface

decimate

mar

blight

destroy completely

despoil

wipe out

trash

depopulate

sweep over

plunder

erase

oppress

ransack

defeat

pillage

eliminate

deface

domineer

do away with

blot out

disrupt

maltreat

loot

buffet

black out

knock out

desolation

impoverish

bother

impair

ill-use

Translations

dévaster

devastare

verheeren

verwüsten

devastar

ravager

desolare

verwoesten

distruggere

ruiner

vernichten

rovinare

zerstören

destruir

devastar

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēvastātus, perfect passive participle of dēvastō (“to lay waste, devastate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)); from dē- (augmentative prefix) + vastō (“to destroy, lay waste”). See vast. First attested in 1638.