Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To lay waste; destroy.
- v. To overwhelm; confound; stun: was devastated by the rude remark.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To lay waste; ravage; make desolate.
- Synonyms To harry, waste, strip, pillage, plunder.
Wiktionary
- v. 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.
- v. To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
- v. 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.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To lay waste; to ravage; to desolate.
WordNet 3.0
- v. overwhelm or overpower
- v. cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
Etymologies
- From Latin dēvastātus, perfect passive participle of dēvastō, from dē- (augmentative prefix) + vastō ("I destroy, I lay waste to"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin dēvāstāre, dēvāstāt- : dē-, de- + vāstāre, to lay waste (from vāstus, empty, desolate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Bubonic plague, a disease which at intervals has swept over the whole world, familiar to all who recall their history as the terrible Black Death of Europe and the plague described by Pepys and Defoe, will never again devastate the more civilized portions of the earth.”
“Maroni says he asked the European Union for emergency to intervene because "there is an institutional and political earthquake" underway in Tunisia that could "devastate" Europe.”
Voice of America: Italy Seeks to Deploy Police in Tunisia to Stem Tide of Refugees
“Failure by rich donor countries to provide fresh resources for a fund to help poor countries would "devastate" the fight against global poverty, the president of the World Bank has warned.”
The Guardian: World Bank boss pleads with rich nations to dig deep and help poor
“World Bank president Robert Zoellick warns failure to top up a fund for poor countries would 'devastate' fight against poverty”
The Guardian: World Bank boss pleads with rich nations to dig deep and help poor
“The BNA reported that, "U.S. labor unions balked at backing ITUC's position, given fears that deep cuts would 'devastate' heavy manufacturing in the United States as well as the coal and steel industries.”
Brendan Smith: Unions Call for Science-Based Reductions in Greenhouse Gases
“A proposal to build Britain's only commercial gold mine in Loch Lomond national park has been refused after councillors decided it would "devastate" the park's outstanding scenery.”
The Guardian: Scottish gold mine turned down at Loch Lochmond
“Really, if the fallout from the last state dinner really did "devastate" the Salahis, as they claimed, wouldn't they mark last night, of all nights, on the calendar to stay home and rent a movie?”
“The new rules are "an impending disaster" which will "devastate" medical training because no surgeon will be able to work a shift long enough to gain proper experience.”
“Prophets, in order to emphasize their threats of divine punishment, spoke as if the word were related to shadad, to "devastate"; but the people at large, unmindful of these etymological niceties, used”
“They released a letter on Wednesday citing "grave concerns" with the legislation and said it would "devastate" community banks and credit unions.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘devastate’.
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Mirrored Vowels
Rules:
• The word must have an even number of vowels.
• There must be four or more vowels; thus, at minimum, an A-A-A-A or A-B-B-A pattern.
• The vowels must appear in a mir...feminine, solicitor, caruncular, repackager, semiprimes, fetishises, decomposer, demonlover, recomposer, sepultures, lipotropic, colesterol and 385 more...
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SEDE - military operations
hit, Iran-Iraq War, prevention, increase of readi..., replacement of wa..., rise of readiness, stabilisation, build up, basic training, defence procurement, force modernisation, full mobilisation and 387 more...
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LIT - Iliad - key words and protagonists
abduct, abducting, abductor, Achaea, Achaean, Achilles, advise, Aegean, Aegean Sea, Aegina, aegis, Aeneas and 713 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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What Is the Sound of One Hand Typing?
Words you can type with one hand--if you learned how to type formally. Hunt-and-peck method doesn't count. ;-) I'm keeping it to five or more letters to avoid an excessively lengthy list.
<...racecar, start, create, desert, dessert, secret, secrete, sweet, tresses, poppy, puppy, homonym and 141 more...
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Extinguishish
A list of managed departures.
jettison, demolition, clearance, chucking, disposal, defenestration, remove, exile, excommunicate, eradicate, banish, deport and 114 more...
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lucidityprevails's Words
lucidity, journalistic, truthiness, foolhardy, egotism, lesbian, orgasmic, activism, moonglow, voodoo, conquer, demolish and 534 more...
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Vocab Lesson 1: Kyle Zelenitz.
abate, acknowledge, agent, authority, devastate, epidemic, estimate, evict, impartial, industrious, infuriate, irrelevant and 3 more...
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jannygirl's Words
definitely, scrumptious, smooth, rocket, memory, tangible, groove, massage, drastic, sweet, silly, reciprocal and 78 more...
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1103
catatonia, dispatch, resuscitate, alleged, douse, expressly, famished, libel, misgiving, oaf, repast, recede and 52 more...
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Words Typed with the Left Hand Only
devastate, stargazer, beverage, addressed, cataract, beggar, debased, vertebrate, aftertaste, exaggerate, stewardesses, aggregrate
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Vocab Lesson 1
Vocab words.
abate, acknowledged, agent, authority, devastate, epidemic, estimate, evict, impartial, industrious, infuriate, irrelevant and 3 more...
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vocab words lesson 1
abate, acknowledge, agent, authority, devastate, epidemic, estimate, evict, impartial, industrious, infuriate, irrelevent and 3 more...
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vocabulary words
abate, acknowledge, agent, authority, devastate, epidemic, estimate, evict, impartial, industrious, infuriate, irrelevant and 3 more...
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Word list lesson 1
abate, acknowledge, agent, authority, devastate, epidemic, estimate, evict, impartial, industrious, infuriate, irrelevent and 3 more...
Tweets
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