skövla

See also: škovlâ

Swedish

skövla (present skövlar, preterite skövlade, supine skövlat, imperative skövla)

(of trees) to fell (on a large scale (causing environmental devastation))
Tio fotbollsplaner regnskog skövlas varje minut
Ten soccer fields of rainforest are cleared every minute
to devastate, to lay waste to
De plundrade och skövlade byn
They plundered and laid waste to the village

Usually of forestry practices with connotations similar to mow down. Inherently negative in (sense 1).
Originally to plunder (or legally seize) and lay bare, which appears to have shifted to general vague devastation. Feels natural to put together with plundra outside of the tree sense. Some native speakers might still see plundering as inherent in the word.

Conjugation of skövla (weak)

	Active		Passive
Infinitive	skövla		skövlas
Supine	skövlat		skövlats
Imperative	skövla		—
Imper. plural¹	skövlen		—
	Present	Past	Present	Past
Indicative	skövlar	skövlade	skövlas	skövlades
Ind. plural¹	skövla	skövlade	skövlas	skövlades
Subjunctive²	skövle	skövlade	skövles	skövlades
	Participles
Present participle	skövlande
Past participle	skövlad
¹ Archaic. ² Dated. See the appendix on Swedish verbs.