Definition of Devastate

1. Verb. Cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly. "The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion"

Exact synonyms: Desolate, Lay Waste To, Ravage, Scourge, Waste
Generic synonyms: Destroy, Ruin
Specialized synonyms: Ruin
Derivative terms: Desolation, Desolation, Desolation, Devastation, Devastation, Devastation, Devastation, Ravage, Ravaging, Scourge, Waster

2. Verb. Overwhelm or overpower. "The bad news will devastate him"; "He was devastated by his grief when his son died"
Generic synonyms: Overcome, Overpower, Overtake, Overwhelm, Sweep Over, Whelm
Derivative terms: Devastation

Definition of Devastate

1. v. t. To lay waste; to ravage; to desolate.

Definition of Devastate

1. Verb. 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. ¹

2. Verb. To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions. ¹

3. Verb. 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. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Devastate

1. [v -STATED, -STATING, -STATES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Devastate

devalued
devalueing
devaluer
devaluers
devalues
devaluing
devan
devanned
devanning
devaporation
devaprasnam
devas
devascularisation
devascularization
devast
devastate (current term)
devastated
devastates
devastating
devastatingly
devastation
devastational
devastations
devastative
devastator
devastators
devasted
devasting
devasts
devata

Literary usage of Devastate

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages: Der Wendepunkt der Renaissance by Woldemar von Seidlitz, Ferdinand Gregorovius, Annie Hamilton (1903)
"THE SARACENS devastate THE CAMPAGNA — JOHN'S LETTERS OF COMPLAINT — LEAGUE BETWEEN THE ... The From the year 876 onwards the Mohamme- devastate dans, ..."

2. History of the Late War, Between the United States and Great Britain by Henry Marie Brackenridge (1818)
"... Harbour—Resignation of general Dearborn—The town of Sodus attacked—Battle of the Beaver Dams—'Second taking of York—'British devastate the borders of ..."

3. History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages by Ferdinand Adolf Gregorovius (1895)
"The Saracens devastate any doubt that he and the fugitive Romans were in league ... THE SARACENS devastate THE CAMPAGNA—JOHN'S LETTERS OF COMPLAINT — LEAGUE ..."

4. A History of the Protestant "reformation," in England and Ireland: Showing ...by William Cobbett by William Cobbett (1824)
"And was it a.good thing, then, to plunder and devastate the^e establishments: was it a reformation to squander estates, thus employed, upon lay persons, ..."

5. Roger of Wendover's Flowers of History: Comprising the History of England by Roger, Matthew Paris (1849)
"... and devastate the whole province. This was accordingly done, and they returned to the king with an enormous booty, and so his fury was in some measure ..."

6. The History of the Crusades for the Recovery and Possession of the Holy Land by Charles Mills (1822)
"... gain it from the Latins, and devastate Palestine Council of Lyons Louis IX, takes the cross English Crusaders Jealousy and ..."

7. The Christian Remembrancer by William Scott (1853)
"which all Lord Wellesley's vigour would be unable to stem—the intrigues of the Souza party—and the necessity of persuading the Portuguese to devastate their ..."

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