devastate

English

Etymology

From Latin devastare (“to lay waste”), from de (“away”) + vastare (“to lay waste”), from vastus (“waste, desolate, vast”).

Verb

devastate (third-person singular simple present 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.

Translations

to ruin many or all things over a large area

Bulgarian: опустошавам (bg) Finnish: mullistaa (fi) German: verwüsten (de)

Hungarian: elpusztít (hu) Romanian: devasta (ro) Swedish: ödelägga (sv)

Related terms

• devastation

External links

• devastate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• devastate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• devastate at OneLook Dictionary Search

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Ido

Verb

devastate

1. adverbial passive participle of devastar

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Italian

Verb

devastate

1. second-person plural present indicative of devastare
2. second-person plural imperative of devastare
3. Feminine plural of devastato

Anagrams

• destavate
• detestava

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Latin

Verb

dēvastāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēvastō