ravage

English edit

From French ravage (“ravage, havoc, spoil”), from ravir (“to bear away suddenly”), from Latin rapere (“to snatch, seize”), akin to Ancient Greek ἁρπάζω (harpázō, “to seize”).

ravage (third-person singular simple present ravages, present participle ravaging, simple past and past participle ravaged)

(transitive) To devastate, destroy or lay waste to something.
- 1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter XII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, pages 334–335:
  But the most important service which Probus rendered to the republic was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of seventy flourishing cities oppressed by the barbarians of Germany, who, since the death of Aurelian, had ravaged that great province with impunity.
- 1937, Josephus, Ralph Marcus, transl., chapter VIII, in Josephus: With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library), volume VI (Jewish Antiquities), London: William Heinemann Ltd.; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, published 1958, →OCLC, book IX, paragraph 1, page 87:
  Now Azaēlos, the king of Syria, made war on the Israelites and their king Jehu, and ravaged the eastern parts of the country across the Jordan […] spreading fire everywhere and plundering everything and inflicting violence on all who fell into his hands.
(transitive) To pillage or plunder destructively; to sack.
(intransitive) To wreak destruction.
(slang) To have vigorous sexual intercourse with.
(slang) To rape.

to devastate, destroy or lay waste to something

to pillage or plunder destructively

to wreak destruction

ravage (plural ravages)

Grievous damage or havoc.
- 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene iii, page 2:
  Would one think 'twere possible for love / To make such ravage in a noble soul!
Depredation or devastation.
the ravages of fire or tempest

the ravages of an army

the ravages of time

the ravage of a lion
- 1781, Edward Gibbon, chapter XIX, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 172:
  The villages on either side of the Meyn, which were plentifully stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravages of an invading army.
- 1835, Charles Lyell, chapter VIII, in Principles of Geology […] , 4th edition, volume III, London: John Murray, Book III, page 114:
  […] and another Swedish naturalist remarks, that so great are the powers of propagation of a single species, even of the smallest insects, that each can commit, when required, more ravages than the elephant.