Wiktionary

devastate

English

edit

Etymology

edit

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

Pronunciation

edit

Verb

edit

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.
    • 2022 August 24, Bruce Healey, “Wartime tunnel crash: a miraculous escape”, in RAIL, number 964, page 53:
      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.
  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

edit

Derived terms

edit
edit

Translations

edit

Further reading

edit

Ido

edit

Verb

edit

devastate

  1. adverbial present passive participle of devastar

Italian

edit

Etymology 1

edit

Verb

edit

devastate

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

Etymology 2

edit

Participle

edit

devastate f pl

  1. feminine plural of devastato

Anagrams

edit

Latin

edit

Verb

edit

dēvāstāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēvāstō

Spanish

edit

Verb

edit

devastate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of devastar combined with te
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=devastate&oldid=80164732"