devastate

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin dēvastātus, perfect passive participle of dēvastō, from dē- (augmentative prefix) + vastō (“I destroy, I lay waste to”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɛvəsteɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

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.
4. To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay

Synonyms

• (to lay waste) decimate (sometimes proscribed); destroy; raze (to structures); ruin

Derived terms

• devastated (adjective)

Related terms

• devastation
• devastavit

Translations

to ruin many or all things over a large area

• Azerbaijani: viran etmək
• Bulgarian: опустошавам (bg) (opustošavam)
• Catalan: devastar (ca)
• Danish: ødelægge (da)
• Finnish: tehdä (suurta) tuhoa (+ allative), hävittää (fi), tuhota (fi), mullistaa (fi)
• French: dévaster (fr)
• Galician: devastar
• German: verwüsten (de), verheeren (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: λυμαίνομαι (lumaínomai), ἐρημόω (erēmóō)

• Hungarian: elpusztít (hu)
• Irish: slad (ga)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: devastare (it)
• Latin: vastō, dēvastō, populor
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: ødelegge (no)

• Polish: dewastować (pl) impf, zdewastować pf
• Portuguese: devastar (pt)
• Romanian: devasta (ro)
• Russian: опустоша́ть (ru) impf (opustošátʹ), опустоши́ть (ru) pf (opustošítʹ), разоря́ть (ru) impf (razorjátʹ), разори́ть (ru) pf (razorítʹ)
• Spanish: devastar (es)
• Swedish: ödelägga (sv)

Further reading

• “devastate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “devastate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “devastate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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Ido

Verb

devastate

1. adverbial present passive participle of devastar

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Italian

Verb

devastate

1. inflection of devastare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative
2. feminine plural of devastato

Anagrams

• destavate, detestava

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Latin

Verb

(deprecated template usage) dēvāstāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēvāstō