Devastate

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Devastate \Dev"as*tate\ (?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
     {Devastated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Devastating}.] [L. devastatus,
     p. p. of devastare to devastate; de + vastare to lay waste,
     vastus waste. See {Vast}.]
     To lay waste; to ravage; to desolate.
     [1913 Webster]


  
           Whole countries . . . were devastated.   --Macaulay.
  
     Syn: To waste; ravage; desolate; destroy; demolish; plunder;
          pillage.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  devastate
       v 1: devastate or ravage; "The enemy lay waste to the countryside
            after the invasion" [syn: {lay waste to}, {waste}, {desolate},
             {ravage}, {scourge}]
       2: overwhelm or overpower; "He was devastated by his grief when
          his son died"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  64 Moby Thesaurus words for "devastate":
     abash, bring to ruin, chagrin, condemn, confound, consume, damn,
     deal destruction, decimate, demolish, depopulate, depredate,
     desecrate, desolate, despoil, destroy, devour, discombobulate,
     discomfit, disconcert, dispeople, dissolve, embarrass, engorge,
     flatten, floor, gobble, gobble up, gut, gut with fire, havoc,
     humiliate, incinerate, lay in ruins, lay waste, level, mortify,
     nonplus, obliterate, overwhelm, pillage, ravage, raze, ruin,
     ruinate, sack, shatter, shipwreck, shock, spoil, spoliate,
     swallow up, take aback, throw into disorder, unleash destruction,
     unleash the hurricane, unpeople, upheave, vandalize, vaporize,
     waste, wrack, wreak havoc, wreck