Devastate

Quick meaning: Devastate is a verb meaning 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.

Meaning

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.

More Meanings

1. To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
2. To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay
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.

Example Sentences

Halifax in Canada was devastated by a ship exploding in 1917. SS Mont Blanc, a French vessel loaded with 2.9 kilotons of explosives, collided with the Imo.

Word Forms

• devastates
• devastating
• devastated

Synonyms for devastate

Depending on context, synonyms include decimate, destroy, raze, ruin, desolate, ravage.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include ravage, waste, desolate, destroy, ruin, wreck.

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