Devastating

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

  devastating \devastating\ adj.
     1. highly critical; making light of; as, a devastating
        portrait of human folly.
  
     Syn: annihilating, withering.
          [WordNet 1.5]
  
     2. causing or capable of causing complete destruction; as, a
        devastating hurricane.
  
     Syn: annihilative.
          [WordNet 1.5]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  devastating
       adj 1: making light of; "afire with annihilating invective"; "a
              devastating portrait of human folly"; "to compliments
              inflated I've a withering reply"- W.S.Gilbert [syn: {annihilating},
               {withering}]
       2: wreaking or capable of wreaking complete destruction;
          "possessing annihilative power"; "a devastating
          hurricane"; "the guns opened a withering fire" [syn: {annihilative},
           {annihilating}, {withering}]
       3: physically or spiritually devastating; often used in
          combination; "a crushing blow"; "a crushing rejection";
          "bone-crushing" [syn: {crushing}]

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

  79 Moby Thesaurus words for "devastating":
     acid, baneful, beaming, bewitching, bitter, blooming, bright,
     brilliant, calamitous, captivating, cataclysmal, cataclysmic,
     catastrophic, caustic, consuming, consumptive, dazzling, deadly,
     demolishing, demolitionary, depredatory, desolating, destroying,
     destructive, disastrous, divine, doomful, enthralling, fatal,
     fateful, fratricidal, glamorous, glorious, glowing, gorgeous,
     heavenly, incisive, internecine, keen, killing, mordant, nihilist,
     nihilistic, overpowering, penetrating, radiant, ravaging, raving,
     ravishing, resplendent, ruining, ruinous, sarcastic, sardonic,
     satirical, savage, self-destructive, shining, sparkling,
     spectacular, spellbinding, splendid, splendorous, splendrous,
     stunning, sublime, subversionary, subversive, suicidal, telling,
     trenchant, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic, virulent, vitriolic,
     wasteful, wasting, withering