devastate
/ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/ verb
Forms devastates devastating devastated
- 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.
- verb To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
- 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.
- verb To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay
Synonyms
decimate destroy raze ruin lay waste to waste desolate ravage scourge
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.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [L. devastatus, p. p. of devastare to devastate; de + vastare to lay waste, vastus waste. See Vast.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “devastate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details