devastate

---

Etymology

From , perfect passive participle of dēvastō, from dē- (augmentative prefix) + vastō ("I destroy, I lay waste to").

Pronunciation

• (British, America, Canada) IPA: /ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/
• (Australia) IPA: /ˈdev.ə.stæɪt/

Verb

devastate (devastates, present participle devastating; simple past and past participle devastated)

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

• (to lay waste) decimate (sometimes proscribed); destroy; raze (to structures); ruin

Related terms

• devastation
• devastavit

Translations

• French: dévaster
• German: verwüsten, verheeren
• Italian: devastare
• Portuguese: devastar
• Russian: опустоша́ть
• Spanish: devastar

---

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003